Washington is pursuing his passion for coaching at the Irish FA\u2019s coach education course in Belfast but his playing future remains uncertain after leaving Championship club Derby County at the end of his contract.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old failed to feature in the League for the Rams last season and has not played for his country since 2023 when he was a second-half substitute in a 2-0 win over Denmark.<\/p>\n
Washington made his Northern Ireland debut in 2016, earning 43 caps. He would love to hit the 50 mark but knows only a revitalised club career will force open the international door again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been hugely frustrating,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThere\u2019s been times where I\u2019ve thought, am I at the end of my career? Should I go straight into coaching?<\/p>\n
\u201cI stepped off the bus at the hotel, ruptured three of my ligaments on the outside of my ankle. And then I went for my coaching badges and tripped over the ball and just had a bit of a problem with the nerve on the outside of my calf. It was crazy stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t involved against Blackburn on the first day of the season. And then I had gastritis. I don\u2019t know if anyone\u2019s had gastritis here, but I felt like I was having a heart attack. Then I\u2019m out of the squad as the season goes on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been training and feel in a good place. I look back and there were so many caps I missed, just from injuries at the wrong time. I missed so many of them. I\u2019d love to get to 50.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel really good, and I still feel like I can go and play for two or three more years. Obviously, I\u2019ve got to get myself to a playing level that Michael\u2019s (O\u2019Neill) got to at least have a look. I obviously had a really good relationship with Michael. He knew what he was getting.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever say never. And I\u2019m looking forward to the challenge because, listen, that is in my mind. It has been in my mind over the last 12 months that I miss playing international football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington joined Derby in July 2023, playing 22 games and scoring three goals as County secured promotion from League One last term.<\/p>\n
However, he has played no part in the club\u2019s escape from relegation this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days I wake up and I\u2019m in an absolute panic that I haven\u2019t got a club and I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going to be and I don\u2019t know if anyone\u2019s going to want to take me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then other days, I think, it\u2019s not even June, like calm your jets and just chill out and enjoy the break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the hunger\u2019s there probably more than it ever has been just because I\u2019ve sort of been denied playing football for 12 months. So I think it\u2019s always the way once you get past 30, you\u2019re keenly aware that, listen, it\u2019s not going to go on forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I want to make it go on for as long as I can because of how much I enjoy playing the game again. There\u2019s been periods in my career where I\u2019ve not particularly enjoyed football. The pressure\u2019s been high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve not been playing. I\u2019ve been in and out. But then, like I say, it\u2019s not until you realise that it doesn\u2019t go on forever and how privileged you actually are that the last two or three years I\u2019ve started to really enjoy the actual game of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still want to keep playing for the next couple of years, or the next four or five years if I can be like Steven Davis, Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I love the coaching, my focus is very much still on playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington is pursuing his passion for coaching at the Irish FA\u2019s coach education course in Belfast but his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,8538,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-142413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114593264140376606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}