Within months, West Bromwich Albion were promoted to the Premier League where the riches and exposure of the club were much greater compared to the Championship.
“And then they told me that they would not be renewing my contract, and the blood just drained from my head.” “If I was a betting man, I would have put nearly all of my life savings on them renewing my contract because of the injury,” said Carlin. Then in 2009, Carlin was called into the club office a few months before his contract was due to expire. While the surgery was a success, it meant that the next six months of his two year deal at West Brom was focused on recovery time, letting the knee heal, spending time in the gym, and thus scuppering most of his second season in a very stressful environment where it was a race for survival of the fittest.
“I remember looking down at my kneecap, at 17 and you try to be positive, but thinking ‘Oh God, that’s not good.'” “, and they were changing the dressing during the first night after surgery, I was able to see the white of my kneecap and it was as white as anything,” explained Carlin. He had injured his kneecap, and if injections and draining the fluids weren’t going to fix the problem, surgery was required. The injury was much worse than Carlin had expected. Training with the first team, Carlin worked alongside West Brom favorites such as Kevin Phillips, Chris Brunt, Zoltan Gera and others.Īfter returning to England from Turkey to have scans done to see the extent of his injury, the medical staff at West Brom broke the bad news to Carlin. He felt confident he was on a fast track to success with the Baggies who were then flying high in the English Championship under manager Tony Mowbray. In his first season at the Hawthorns, Carlin made an immediate impact for the reserves, moving up to third-choice goalkeeper at the club. At 16, he made the decision to join Albion where he quickly learned the ropes by training with the first team under the coaching tutelage of goalkeeping legend Joe Corrigan. After trials at Chelsea, Charlton Athletic and Manchester City, he was persuaded to make a choice between Leicester City and West Brom for a better chance of gaining more playing time and moving up through the system. He was in the one percent of footballers who were able to get away from Ireland to England and land a professional contract. Prior to that, Carlin was one of the lucky ones. When Gavin Carlin, a promising young goalkeeper for West Bromwich Albion and the Republic of Ireland U-17 team, made the long journey to southern Turkey to prepare for the U17 UEFA European Championship in 2008, little did he know that his life would be turned upside down after he picked up an unfortunate injury on a rocky pitch.
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