GRAHAM OF THRONES

'Maverick' Burke is crowned League of Ireland Player of the Month for May & Hoops boss Bradley says striker's spicy attitude's what makes him the special player he is

- BY PAUL O'HEHIR

GRAHAM BURKE has been labelled a ‘maverick’ who makes Shamrock Rovers a much better team when he is injury-free and on the pitch.

And the Hoops ace himself feels he’s in the best shape in years as he looks to keep Rovers on track to reclaim the title.

Burke has been crowned the SSE Airtricity / Soccer Writers Ireland ‘Player of the Month for May’ after scoring four goals and providing two assists in that timeframe.

The 31-year-old has been frustrated with the stop-start nature of recent seasons as injuries and niggles took their toll on his body.

And that was evident last season with Burke forced to play a bit-part role in the Hoops' historic European run, with his only start in the league phase coming against Larne.

Even in the qualifying stages, he missed the Vikingur games completely with injury and came off the bench in the second-leg against Sparta Prague.

And it was substitute roles again against Celje and PAOK, before featuring in just three of the six league phase games, starting one, with another start at home to Molde in the playoff.

Burke said yesterday: “The last two years I've got a run of games and then got an injury, rehab, try to come back and then get up to speed again. Maybe you get back in the team and for me it just felt that every four or five games I was back with the physio.