Picture the scenario. You are arguably the best player in your position in your home country and have become a regular starter for the full international team.
You're similarly regarded as one of finest exponents of your role at your club, for whom you netted the winner in a cup final last season. Your boss is on the record as a huge admirer of your game, and you're still not even close to the prime of your career and have several years of contract remaining.
But despite being available for the majority of the season while so many of your team-mates have struggled for fitness, you've barely had a sniff of first-team football - and probably won't for the remainder of the campaign.
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Such, then, is the predicament of Caoimhin Kelleher at Liverpool, a goalkeeper too good to be a reserve but hampered by playing in a specialist position behind perhaps the finest custodian in the game at present in Alisson Becker.
Certainly, one or two aberrations aside, Liverpool supporters would probably shudder to think at how much more tortuous the season would have been were it not for the consistently outstanding displays from the Brazilian.
Having Kelleher as understudy has no doubt kept Alisson on his toes. That, though, is of little consolation to the Republic of Ireland international, who is currently with the national team preparing for the forthcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Latvia tonight and France on Monday.
Barely 12 months ago came the pinnacle of Kelleher's fledgling career when, having started and kept a clean sheet in the League Cup final against Chelsea, he notched what turned out to be the winning penalty in a dramatic shoot-out.
"To be 100% honest, for me, Kelleher is the best number two in the world, especially for the way we play," said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp shortly after that memorable Wembley encounter.
Those words, though, highlight the issue with which Kelleher must now contend. And it's one that, speaking ahead of that final, Klopp accepted he was all too aware.
“We want to keep him as long as somehow possible, knowing that, from our point of view, the best goalkeeper in the world is our number one," said the Reds boss. “Caoimh is an exceptional goalkeeper and we want to keep him here. And for that, he needs games."
Since that final, Kelleher simply hasn't had many. He didn't make another appearance that campaign, and has been restricted to just three this season - two in the League Cup and one in the FA Cup. Even before this week's matches, he has played more times for his country than his club since that Wembley final.
Kelleher, then, is fast approaching a crossroads. An Alisson injury aside, he won't play for Liverpool again this term and could easily have made his last appearance for the Anfield outfit, at least for some time.
The goalkeeper is one of few saleable assets with which the Reds would reluctantly depart in the summer, but having invested so much time in the player's development, they would most likely command upwards of £20million. Ideally, they would not want to sell to a Premier League rival and instead negotiate a buy-back clause for Kelleher with a foreign club, but they would ultimately be led by the Irishman's desire.
For both player and club, the time for an amicable parting of the ways is approaching. Liverpool acknowledge Kelleher cannot be held back much longer.
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