After a whistle-stop trip to Paris for the Champions League final, Roberto Lopes heads to Morocco today for international duty.
But while the rest of his Shamrock Rovers team-mates are chilling with a week of R&R during the mid-season break, Lopes is going full throttle.
“I’ve two games with Cape Verde, both in Marrakesh - the first one against Burkina Faso (June 3) and then Togo (June 7),” he said.
Lopes played a starring role in Cape Verde’s Africa Cup of Nations finals campaign in Cameroon back in January - until food poisoning hit in the Last 16 clash with Senegal.
And he feels the tiny island nation has a score to settle as they embark on their opening qualifiers for the 2023 finals in Ivory Coast.
Eswatini make up the qualifying group and Lopes said: “It's a big qualification campaign coming again with the AFCON coming fast next June.
“After the way it ended in January, we have the taste for more and hopefully go further than we did.
“We just felt things went against us with the food poisoning and two sendings off. We want to go back and give a better account of ourselves really.
“I wouldn't mind a few days off on holidays because it's a long season and a long year but I can't really complain!
”I'm getting to see the world playing football which is something I love.
“(International football) refreshes you because it's not the norm, you are away and it's a really good standard and there is pressure on you.
“They are nice countries too and the sun always works well on the body and it resets you for coming back here to a league you are trying to win. It refocuses you.”
And with international breaks incorporated into the League of Ireland season this year, Lopes won't miss any domestic games.
“The fact you're not missing league games is very important,” he said. “You're watching from different countries and you want to help but you’re powerless.
“It's been given a great opportunity to really commit to both, to go away with the international games and give 100% and then come back here and be ready to rock.”
After Friday’s 2-0 win over Shelbourne, Lopes was Paris-bound on Saturday morning having secured two tickets for the final.
He is not a Liverpool fan, but his best mate who travelled with him is and Lopes was cheering for Madrid just to wind him up.
Cape Verde have a friendly against Ecuador after their two qualifiers but Lopes won’t be involved and will return to Dublin instead.
Rovers’ scheduled league game against St Pat’s immediately after the break is now one of four matches postponed that weekend because of other international call-ups.
So Lopes will have additional time to recover after his international jaunt, with Rovers having stretched their lead at the top to eight points.
The centre-back felt it was important to see off Shelbourne in Tallaght and get back to winning ways having lost in Drogheda before it.
Lopes added: ”We knew it was poor against Drogheda and Shels were flying coming into Friday’s game, so we were looking for a reaction.”
