Socceroos star Jackson Irvine on the wild week that will see him play two World Cup qualifiers and return to a new club

WHEN Jackson Irvine left for Socceroos camp a week ago he was a Burton Albion player, but will return to England on Wednesday as a player with Hull City.

Socceroos midfielder Jackson Irvine in action against Japan on Thursday night.

WHEN Jackson Irvine left for Socceroos camp a week ago he was a Burton Albion player, but will return to England on Wednesday as a player with Hull City.

In between times he will have been involved in two cut-throat World Cup qualifiers and gone through one of the more stressful experiences any professional footballer can endure - transferring clubs.

Those close to the easy-going Melbourne boy would know he’s not likely to get too weighed down by such scenarios.

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But the 24-year-old has provided some extraordinary insights into what it is like for a player being subject to transfer deadline pressures and international duty at the same time.

Irvine had been linked to a move for a while.

And when the midfielder didn’t feature in Burton’s last game before the international break it was clear something was in the pipeline.

The Hull courtship was a quick one.

Socceroos midfielder Jackson Irvine in action against Japan on Thursday night.

Irvine said he got a phone call on the Thursday to say Hull was interested and he did a medical on the Friday, but was due to fly to Japan two days later.

From his end he thought everything was sorted. He’d even had taken the customary “holding the jersey” photo for the Tigers to release.

But, because “the clubs were trying to smooth things out”, the dealings dragged on, so Irvine jetted off in limbo and didn’t officially become a Hull player until the day before Australia played Japan.

“You get emails saying ‘quick, you need to print this, scan it and send it back immediately’, so you run down to hotel reception (in Tokyo) to get it all sorted,” Irvine said.

“These are things that people probably don’t see or think about.

“And you’re not getting information because you’re overseas and time is kind of ticking away, it can be a little bit stressful.”

To go back a few weeks, Irvine played five games for Burton to start the season.

But despite knowing a move could be afoot, the 14-time Socceroo insists he gave everything for the Brewers.

“It’s situational,” he said. “If someone is incredibly desperate to get out of a club then that can affect the mindset.

“But I wasn’t desperate to leave Burton, it was more about if an opportunity came up.

“So I went back into Burton this season with every intention of, if that opportunity didn’t come, being fully committed to the cause for the season.

“I’m very much a heart on my sleeve player, I don’t really know any other way. So when I’m out on the pitch these kind of things disappear and you’re just playing a game.”

He even played a match against Hull, but reiterated he didn’t know he would be potentially moving there.

Jackson Irvine (left) in action for Burton Albion against Aaron Mooy of Huddersfield last season. When Irvine returns to the Championship he’ll be playing for Hull City.

In a topsy turvy outing, Irvine scored and got sent off in the first half of the 4-1 loss.

“I think they got the best and the worst of me that day,” he said.

Some have questioned the move from one Championship club to another, but, hellbent on playing in the English Premier League, Irvine sees the switch as his best chance of realising his dream.

Irvine said “with the resources and the budget Burton works with”, simply surviving the drop to League One was “an incredible achievement” last season.

Hull was in the EPL in 2016-17 and has every intention of making an immediate return.

“In this day and age, to sign for a Premier League team and go in and play straight away, is nigh on impossible with the modern market.

“And so I think the clearest path to the Premier League now is for players, young players in my situation, to try to get promoted.”

Hull is that “awkward distance” of just over an hour away from his current place in Nottingham, so Irvine will also be on the lookout for a new house.

So much of a whirlwind has the saga been that he hasn’t even met his new manager, Leonid Slutsky, yet.

But his first match for Hull could be as early as Saturday morning (AEST).

“I’ve been on the phone with the manager and the assistants,” he said.

“And I’ve already been added into the players’ group chat and I’m having a bit of banter with them. They’ve been winding me up already about my hair, of course.

“It seems like it’s going to be a smooth transition, hopefully.”

Read more: How the Socceroos can qualify in their final round