Having made his Ireland debut last month, Alan Judge suffered a terrible leg break which rules him out of Euro 2016.
The Brentford midfielder had been in fantastic form at club level, prompting a belief that he could force his way into Martin O'Neill's squad for France this summer.
Alas, his double leg fracture after a shocking challenge against Ipswich means the tournament is no longer a possibility, and it also rules out a potential transfer to a Premier League club this summer.
"It's not football as far as I'm concerned. It was a horrible, horrible tackle. It was an over-the-top tackle," said former Ireland full-back Paddy Mulligan as he discussed Judge's injury on this week's Rewind podcast.
"It was two-footed and there was absolutely no excuse. The referee didn't even send the player off. It's quite incredible really."
Judge has tweeted to emphasise the need to be mentally strong as he begins his recovery and Paddy feels that will be the most important thing for the attacking midfielder over the next few months.
"He is taking it very much on the chin and there is an awful lot of dignity there and there's not much more that he can say about it except to accept his fate at this moment in time. It's horrible for him. It was a really nasty tackle," said Paddy.
"From day one you've got to be positive. As soon as you get that injury and you're in that hospital and you know that everything's going to be alright. Then you've got to start working on it mentally because if you don't work at it mentally, if you've got any doubts at all, then you're going to put yourself back months, maybe a year."
Paddy also talked Premier League, including Manchester United's collapse at Tottenham and the weekend's Airtrcity League action:
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