Listen to the full interview via the Off The Ball Football Show podcast.

After five years away from home, Ireland midfielder Keith Fahey has returned to our shores to line out for St Pat's.

Tonight, the 30-year-old talked to us about his decision to taste the League of Ireland again, his international career and a "difficult 18 months" after missing out on the Euros and being released by Birmingham City.

But one negative that occurred at Dublin's Bushy Park did have a funny side.

"I was training away and doing my running drills. Someone was walking their dogs and one of them came over and took a cone and ran off. I just stopped but the dog had come back to give the cone back then. It must have run half a mile and I was looking at the woman to see if she could get it back but she couldn't control her own dog. The another dog came up and stole another cone. I was going to stop training but once the dogs went I was grand."

On a more serious note, Fahey did not play down the largesse of the decision to return home.

"It was a big decision," said Fahey of his return to Ireland. "I had a good couple of days thinking about things. I was training with Sheffield United and I dislocated my toe, unfortunately, when I was close to starting talks on a contract.

"By the time I would have been fit, it would be mid-February so I thought to myself, would I really like to go back and face a contract in England and probably be at the wrong end of the season to sign one?"

That influenced his decision to return to Ireland and "start back" at St Pat's. But he has not ruled out a return to England.

Although he acknowledged that a footballer's life is often naturally nomadic, Fahey told Ger and Garry Doyle that he is someone who likes "to settle and know where he is for a while".

But after his release from Birmingham City, the last year has seen him flit between Ireland, Sheffield and the house of Irish striker Adam Rooney in Manchester due to injury rehab, training and the search for a new club.

"I was kind of living out of the back of my car for a while and it was staying in hotels and staying with Adam who was good to me. It was a bit of a nightmare. I like to settle and when I was at Pat's I was well settled the last time because I was living at home. I haven't been to many clubs. I wouldn't be one of these lads that likes to have a year here or a year there. It was the same at Birmingham as I was there for four and a half years," Fahey admitted.

The cultured midfielder has always garnered praise for the way he uses the ball and would have expected to join the Ireland squad at Euro 2012. But it wasn't to be.

"I had groin issues in the second half of the season with Birmingham and I was struggling. I came to a stage where I was playing with the injuries and they were not getting any better and it was painful to play. I missed the playoffs with Birmingham which I was disappointed about. Then I did a good bit of rehab when I was back with the [Ireland] squad and I was included in the squad. But then I just over-stretched in training. It was going to happen. If I had went away [to Poland], it probably would have happened anyway."

Main image: Keith Fahey ©INPHO/Donall Farmer