Joe Kendrick is currently on trial with the Stags, below is an article found on him from his time at Darlington.....
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www.darlofc.co.uk
By Scott Thornberry
Date: 7/11/2004
The 21-year-old has featured heavily in Quakers' pre-season programme and looks certain to make his professional bow against Grimsby Town tomorrow, but if fate played a different hand he'd be gearing up for the new season in Germany.
A year ago, after being freed by Newcastle United, he made a dream move to Bundesliga outfit 1860 Munich.
He signed a three-year contract at one of the country's biggest clubs and, after failing to make the breakthrough at St James Park, was looking forward to making a new start in life, even learning to speak the language.
But the move quickly turned sour after suffering a broken leg which ultimately brought a premature end to the Irishman's Bavarian adventure.
Kendrick, who never go to grace the 1860 first-team, said: "Germany went well for the first couple of weeks but then I got an unfortunate injury and things went from bad to worse because the manager who signed me got sacked.
"I was out for three-and-a-half months, it should've been just two but the operation didn't go too well. I had a screw inserted in my foot which is still there now, it was going me terrible bother and took a while to settle down but I'm OK now, it feels perfect.