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David McGoldrick knows what a phone that does not ring means for a striker in his mid 30s, with no club and a history of injuries.
And in the the past nine months, he has banged in a career-best 25 goals for Derby County to show why he did not deserve the summer of silence that briefly had him considering retirement.
Just two years ago he was playing in the Premier League with Sheffield United, but dropped to the third division this season after being released by the Blades at the end of a Championship campaign that was curtailed by a thigh problem.
The rebuilding Rams, who had just come out of administration and had only five first-team players on existing deals for the 2022-23 season, were the ones to call the former Republic of Ireland international last July.
“When I got told I wasn’t getting a contract at Sheffield United you think, ‘yeah, I’ll be fine, there will be Championship teams’, but there wasn’t,” McGoldrick told BBC East Midlands Today.
“And it’s like ‘OK, everyone thinks that I’m done’. I was 34 at the time and coming back from a four-month injury and people are thinking that they don’t want to touch me – I’m old and I’m injured.
“I don’t do the social media stuff, but I’m clever enough to know what people are thinking when my phone isn’t ringing.
“For two weeks in the summer when I was away I said ‘that’s me done’, but then you get that passion and drive again – that fire in your belly to say ‘I want to prove it to myself and I want to go out on my terms’.
“It’s satisfying to prove to people now you are here, people talk and say ‘he is class’ and this and that.
“I made my debut when I was 16 and I’m 35 now, so I’ve had a good stint in the game and I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone.”
McGoldrick has had the most prolific season of his 19-year career this term, scoring 25 goals in all competitions.
And having never hit a hat-trick before this season, he now has three.
“People look at me and I’m not the quickest, so there is always this phrase in the game that ‘his legs are gone’,” McGoldrick said.
“But pace has never been my main ability, so as long as the brain is still working, which it thankfully is, then I feel like I can still contribute.”
How McGoldrick found his spark
His 22 League One goals includes six in the past five games – a scoring spree in an unbeaten run that has moved the Rams back into the play-off spots with two games remaining.
McGoldrick has been in this position before, as a cast-off that went on to confound expectations with a glut of goals in a promotion-winning season.
“I go back to when I was released by Ipswich [in 2018], I was 30 at the time and again my phone didn’t ring and then I went and got a trial at Sheffield United,” he said.
“Sometimes you can get a bit comfortable and you need something to spark that fire in you again, and it did when we had that great season and we got that promotion [to the Premier League].
“It’s happened this year as well and hopefully we can follow that up with promotion.”
The fact that no other player apart from McGoldrick has scored a goal from open play in the past eight games for Derby highlights just how valuable the former Nottingham Forest, Southampton and Notts County striker has been for the Rams.
Derby boss Paul Warne has already said he wants to keep his top scorer at Pride Park beyond this season, with McGoldrick adding that talks will wait until after the season so their focus can remain on promotion.
“I love playing for Derby, the fans have taken to me and I love the boys, the manger and the staff,” McGoldrick said.
“I have an open relationship with the manger about the situation. I don’t like distractions and I don’t have agents, so it’s me doing it myself.
“I just said wait to the end of the season and let’s concentrate on getting over that line, and then we will go from there.”
