For Megan Frazer, a once-in-a-generation talent, she has certainly never taken the easy road on her international hockey journey.
She is the wildcard in Graham Shaw’s World Cup squad who make their tournament bow tomorrow against USA.
The Derry woman has played a part in just six competitive fixtures since October 2016, going through three rounds of surgery to correct a knee ligament injury.
But her brilliance means the coach is willing to roll the dice to see if she can produce some of her breathtaking performances from the base of midfield. For Frazer, it means a chance to finally show her talent on the highest stage.
Her sporting prowess was obvious from an early age: Just a year into her football career, she was called into the Northern Ireland underage international ranks.
Once she started secondary school at Foyle & Londonderry College, she turned her attention to hockey — with limited early success.
“Football came very easily to me. In hockey, I got rejected from my first trial. It made me more motivated,” says Frazer.
“It got to the point where I had Northern Ireland football training in the morning and hockey in the afternoon. It was too much. Hockey was more challenging for me and that’s probably why I ended up choosing it.”
Though she is related to Republic of Ireland international Darron Gibson, Frazer insists that hers is “not really a sporting family” and so there was no pressure to make a choice on which sport to concentrate on.
Soon, she was making waves, leading Foyle to a first and only Ulster schools cup title and she was fast-tracked to the national team at just 17.
Again, there was a crossroads. She played in the 2009 European Championships in Amsterdam and was set to be a mainstay of the team.
Instead, she took up a scholarship with the University of Maryland Terrapins, jetting out from the Euros almost immediately after a win over Azerbaijan to retain A status.
“The Euros were a lovely distraction for an 18-year-old who had never left home. It only hit me that day that I got nervous or upset about it.”
While commonplace for young Irish hockey players now — six of the current squad have been over in the US — it was then a new departure, one for which she admits she had no preparation.
Frazer describes the first weeks as “horrible, homesick, and lonely”, but soon forged a strong group of friends
to eventually settle in.
The travel demands, though, were too much to maintain her Irish career and she withdrew from the panel in 2010 to focus on her studies.
“At the time, it was a huge decision to leave. It was a worry [I would be out of sight]. In hindsight, it was 100% the right choice for me. I learned so much about myself and it made me the team player I am today. It’s given me an attitude to taking on challenges, even in my personal life.”
Her hockey flourished, winning two NCAA titles and the prestigious Honda Award as the best female collegiate hockey player for 2011/12.
Soon after her return, then national coach Darren Smith recalled her and installed her as captain at just 22. Soon she was being lauded as one of the world’s rising stars.
But the chance to show that on the highest stage, though, was cruelly ripped away from her.
Against China in the Olympic qualifiers in Valencia, with the Sky cameras rolling in a sudden death shoot-out, she stepped forward for a potential winner. It clattered the post instead and China duly held their nerve to nick the win and the Rio ticket.
Frazer did follow up with an Irish Senior Cup medal with Ulster Elks in 2016 before inking a professional contract with Mannheimer HC in Germany. However, one month into the season Frazer sustained a knee injury that would lead to some of the darkest times of her life.
One surgery turned into two in the summer of 2017, all the while watching from afar as her Irish teammates defied the odds to qualify for the World Cup.
“It was always two steps forward, one step back,” she says.
“Last summer was the darkest time. I felt I was getting nowhere; there was barely any progress and the girls were in South Africa at World League 3 and the Europeans.
“To be out on my own every day, making no progress. It was a real shock to the system. The amount of training I had to do alone was huge.
“But as challenging as it was, I have got something from it. I can do anything on my own, it doesn’t matter what it is, I can still do it as competitively as other people because I had to. Killing myself in running sessions... it is much easier doing it with other people. You find a new level of competition within yourself.”
Respite finally came in May when she was able to return to action, a couple of tentative performances in the European Club Cup and the semi-final of the German championships. She underwent further keyhole surgery in the wake of those games and only lined out for her first game for Ireland in 20 months last week against Italy and Chile.
As such, she is aware that Shaw is taking a punt on her.
“I am not entirely where I would like to be. I have so much more to get back. How I play relies on a lot of speed and change of pace. Without that, it affects my play but, hopefully, the third surgery has taken away that pain which was restricting me.”
Selection means Frazer knows the faith Shaw has in her while teammates nominated her as “the hardest trainer” in recent promotional videos.
“That was like ‘they haven’t forgotten me’. I got a lot more satisfaction from that 30-second clip than anyone would have expected. I was really chuffed; it was a minor thing but I have been away from the squad almost two years.
“It has been a rough two years but that also makes it that bit more gratifying to be named. It’s going to be amazing playing on such a big stage, such a big event. I just don’t want to overthink things but I can’t wait to get out and play, take on these teams ranked above us, and do some damage.”