My family are a massive part of my journey

It's been a good year for Jessie Stapleton.

The Cherry Orchard graduate has long been on the radar of those keeping tabs on emerging Irish stars, excelling at Shelbourne before making a move to West Ham in the summer of 2023.

A loan spell at Reading was rocky, mainly because of the club's dire financial problems, but a second loan move, this time to Sunderland, proved a real success. Stapleton played week in, week out in the Championship, rounding her game and establishing herself in the Republic of Ireland side under Eileen Gleeson and then Carla Ward.

Still only 20, she'll be back at the Hammers for pre-season in a few weeks' time much better prepared to force her way into the first team and take a highly promising career to the next level.

"I think the loan went as we set out for it to go," Stapleton said ahead of tonight's friendly against the USA in Denver, Colorado (2am kick-off Irish time).

"It obviously benefited me a lot, I got a lot of game time and a lot of experience in the Championship. I'm back in with West Ham now, I’m just going to go to pre-season and see what I can do.

"That’s a dream of mine. The WSL is one of the best leagues in the world so I’ll do what I have to do to get there. I want to play there, it’s whether the manager thinks I’m ready or not."

The leap from the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division to the WSL or even Championship really is a signifant one. Stapleton admits that physically, it took her time to make that adjustment, not to mention the challenges of fleeing the nest for the first time aged 18 and settling into new surrounds.

"I think the biggest thing when you move away is fitness levels."

"I think there’s a big step when you go to professional football, training every day and playing at a higher level and stuff," she added.

"I feel like because I’ve been doing that regularly it’s come to me now. I do it week in week out so I feel a lot better than when I was playing two years ago.

"I think no matter what you do when you move over, you can train like a mad woman, but I was still in school at the time, I was playing with Shels, which isn’t a full-time team. But when you move over, it’s training every day at a high level, so it is a big step up. Recovery, nutrition and just getting used to that everyday sort of physical output.

"I think the biggest thing when you move away is fitness levels. They do it consistently week in, week out. They do it every day. The jump from training three days a week to doing it every day is obviously going to be massive."

She'll have her old Shels teammate Jess Ziu for company during pre-season. Ziu is closing on a return from the ACL injury she sustained last August, while the wider Stapleton clan are frequent visitors to ensure she never feels too far from home.

Stapleton is a wise head on young shoulders, tipped by some observers to be a future Ireland captain, but she's the first to stress that her own steel and resilience comes from a tight, protective family unit.

"A lot of people say that I'm way beyond my years. That’s a credit to the people around me.

"A lot of people have looked after me growing up. Being in camp from 16 or whatever, you sort of grow up. I still have youth on my side, I’m still kiddish, I’m still childish but yeah I’d say I’m quite mature for a 20-year-old.

"My family are a massive part of my football journey, but a massive part of my life as well. I love the bones off them. Anything that I need, they're always there. They come see me whenever I need them. They come see me whenever I don’t even need them! I probably see them too much now! But they are a massive part of my football."

Stapleton's eyes were stung red with tears after Ireland were beaten by Wales in last December's Euro 2025 play-off. The pain still lingers (Stapleton admits she'll find it difficult to watch the tournament this summer), but it's fuelling a deep desire to reach the next World Cup in Brazil and heal some of those scars.

"It was probably one of the worst games to experience, but it's one of those pinnacle moments in my career where I look now and think, I never want to feel like that again after a match," she added.

"I’ve knuckled down and tried to do everything I can to be in the best condition after that, because I never want to feel like that again. So, when the World Cup comes around I want to be in the best physical shape to hopefully go to the World Cup.

Watch USA v Republic of Ireland on Friday from 2am on RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app

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