Greg Cunningham says he feels "revived" as the Irishman's form at Preston North End garners deserved notice.
The Galway born left back, who has four Ireland caps earned between 2010 and 2013, has been back on track in recent times after his promising progress was knocked slightly off course due to a serious injury sustained six years ago.
A leg break while on loan at Leicester City from Manchester City in 2011 stalled his progress at a time when he was breaking into the Ireland and Manchester City setups.
Indeed things could have turned out differently as he was clearly valued at City during Roberto Mancini's time in charge.
"He was great," Cunningham told Off The Ball, adding that he owes " a lot of credit to" Glyn Hodges who was the reserve team manager during the previous Mark Hughes management spell.
"Mancini was great, really showed great confidence in me, gave me my debut and a few appearances and obviously would have been a factor in getting me into the Ireland setup."
The 26 year old also added that he grew mentally during his recovery from injury and between 2012 and 2015 spent time at Bristol City prior to joining a Preston team with a growing Irish contingent.
"The move [to Preston] really revived me," he said, crediting manager Simon Grayson for helping him and lauding the work experienced Ireland winger Aiden McGeady does in front of him at Deepdale.
"Confidence is a massive thing when it comes to players and the gaffer's man-management is second to none and he has installed a great working environment at the club and the boys are really enjoying their football."
As for getting back into the Ireland squad, his plan is to keep his head down, work hard and hopefully Martin O'Neill will come calling.
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