Joe Hodge arrives in Motherwell with an impressive CV, a point to prove and a responsibility on his shoulders already. The Ireland international jetted in from Portugal, where he had been playing with C.D. Tondela for 12 months, and wanted to hit the ground running early doors.
Arriving in the midst of a hectic schedule with the Steelmen balancing William Hill Premiership action, Premier Sports Cup football and, of course, UEFA Conference League matches, Hodge was thrust in against Stenhousemuir for his debut as Alfred Johansson looked to build the midfielder up as quickly as possible following the injuries to other midfield options like Oscar Priestman, Tom Sparrow and Dylan Williams.
But having had to remain patient for his move to ML1 to be finalised for a period during the summer months, Hodge is simply brimming with excitement and grateful for the fast start.
“I’m feeling really settled early on here, which is good because the transfer dragged on a lot longer that I would’ve wanted it to,” Joe Hodge said.
“But I think to come in and have all these games straight off the bat is perfect for what I needed, and it just makes me feel a part of the team straight away. I watched a lot of the games from last year and this season when I heard about the interest.
“And then as soon as I spoke to the gaffer, he talked me through his way of playing football, and to be perfectly honest, my mind was made up there and then. I think the way he wants to play suits where I see myself as a player, and I think it’s going to be a good match.
“I’ve had a lot of different experiences in my career where I’ve played in different leagues and in different styles. This means I’ve got a nice blend of experience in that regard, but I do think people have a tendency to look at me as a player with my build and think that I won’t be physical or that I can only play football in a certain way.
“But the way we want to play here is most definitely my favourite, but that’s not to say it’s the only way I can play. I’ve played in League One in England, where the ball is up in the air a lot of the time. I’ve played youth English football and Portuguese football, as well as international. So I’m well adapted to anything I’m asked to do.”
Hodge joined the Manchester City youth setup at the under-9 age category, and from there, he moved through the various age brackets and played alongside some of the most talented stars in England. And all the time, Hodge was impressing. In 2020, he picked up Manchester City’s Scholar of the Year at the 2019/20 Premier League Academy Awards. He helped his side lift the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 12 years, where the side consisted of Oscar Bobb, Liam Delap, Cole Palmer, James McAtee and Morgan Rogers.
And as much as playing in that kind of environment could be something many players would cherish and continue to think about, Hodge has tried to put it to the back of his mind, although he remains grateful for what the club did for him in his early footballing years.
“I think it was a really important part of my career,” he explained.
“The level of the players that I would be training with every day going through my scholarship at City pushed me and helped me develop into the player I am today. But to be honest, I don’t like talking about it too much because it’s easy to get caught up in the fact that the rest of those players are playing Champions League football and I’ve gone down a completely different path to a lot of those in that squad.
“It’s important for me to leave that in the past. It’s helped me become who I am now, but I’ve had a different journey, and it’s important for me to just keep working hard to see how far I can go in my career.”
It’s easy to get caught up in those headline names, but when you learn more about Hodge’s journey, he’s had some difficult moments. Miss 13 months of football before signing for Wolverhampton Wanderers and moving away from the club he’d spent over a decade with was a huge setback overcome. His first loan move to Derry City being unsuccessful due to a severe back injury; and further reduced minutes at other clubs.
His robustness and ability to counter-attack set-backs and hurdles have been evident throughout his career and were further highlighted by James Collins back in 2022 when he stated, ‘Nobody I know works harder than him or sticks at it, showing resilience like him. He’s getting his rewards with his performances. I think he’s been our standout player this season so far, and because of that, he probably won’t spend much longer in under-21s football. He’ll either get in and around our first team or he’ll get himself a really good loan.’
And he wasn’t wrong. A week later, Hodge was handed his Premier League debut at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea.
That was one of the three appearances of the bench before Hodge was given his first start in the EFL Cup against Leeds United. Julen Lopetegui opted to increase his minutes by giving him his first Premier League start against Everton later that year, with Hodge also starting at Anfield in the FA Cup. In total, he made 13 appearances for Wolves before joining QPR on loan for the 2023/24 season.
“I’m proud of what I’ve managed to achieve so far in my career,” the 23-year-old added.
“Especially with some of the injuries I had when I was a younger player. There have been so many different things I’ve had to bounce back from, times at clubs when I’ve not been playing, but I’ve always found a way to come through it and managed to improve constantly. It’s been a bit of a different route, and I may not have gone the way I would’ve seen it going when I was at City with all those players who are in the Premier League and Champions League, but that’s the way it goes sometimes, and I’m just coming into work every day, working as hard as I can and seeing where it takes me.
“I think when I got to Wolves, it was my first proper breakthrough. That was when I got my first taste of senior football. With Lopetegui as the manager, he had a really good pedigree in the game and sort of trusted me to take the step into the first-team. That was the moment where I really started to think I had a better chance of making it in football. I was only 20 at this point, and to be honest, I probably wasn’t ready for it. I’d just come off the back of an injury where I was out and didn’t kick a football for about a year.
“But I didn’t let myself down in the way I played, and it was something to learn from. Getting thrown in at that level and trying to improve was a huge learning curve.”
Hodge’s time at QPR would end up being broken up by injuries, a change of managers and other factors that didn’t go in his favour. But his next season on loan with Huddersfield Town has fonder memories for the midfielder, as he made 27 appearances in League One but was still one of frustration.
A season he describes as not going the way he or Huddersfield Town would have wanted it to, he did, however, adapt and learn from playing League One football and added another string to his bow. But in the summer of 2025, it was time for a new chapter, this time abroad. Finishing his loan spell at Huddersfield before jetting off to Portugal to play for C.D. Tondela is a move many wouldn’t have predicted, but it would be another season of learning and showing mental toughness.
“The experience was great, but it was difficult too,” Hodge detailed.
“The environment I was living in wasn’t a big city in Portugal, so I was having to learn the language to get by as well. It was a challenge, but the football side of things was hard too. We were always in the relegation dogfight pretty much from the word go and never really managed to get out of it.
“The experience of being in a relegation battle and having to go to these big stadiums and teams and try our best to get a result against the odds was a hugely exciting challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed my year at Tondela. My Portuguese isn’t fluent, but it’s also not a disaster. I tried to do a bit of everything to learn what I could. I was trying to listen to people and trying to talk to people every day. I think that’s how you learn the fastest; you can’t just sit on Duolingo all day!”
And throughout all the hardship and tough moments he had to endure, one target always remained in his sights. Despite being born in Manchester, Hodge has Irish connections on his dad’s side, and it was always a huge ambition to represent Ireland at an international level.
Having represented the Irish from Under 15s all the way to Under 21s, that first-team cap remained unticked. Named in an Irish squad back in 2024, he remained an unused substitute, and his focus remained firmly on reaching his goal. Just this summer, he was finally able to do what he’d always dreamt of in a friendly against Canada.
“There was a sense of relief that came with it because I’d come close a couple of times,” the Irish international stated.
“I’d been playing in the Premier League and never got the call-up when I thought I might have done. So for me, to finally get that first cap was a relief. You see so many players get to a stage in their career, and the opportunity passes, and they never get the moment. It meant everything to me.
“My Irish roots come from my dad’s mother. I’ve always wanted to play for Ireland for as long as I can remember, so hopefully that cap is the first of many. Now I want to break into the squad properly, and I know that the gaffer of the national team is always watching games in Scotland, so I think if I can have a good season and kick on, it’ll give me a chance to show why I could be included regularly.
“But it works both ways too, because club football comes first. I want to become a really important part of the team and part of a winning team. We want to be pushing as high up the table as possible. The system is adventurous and exciting for me in my position.
“I knew what I was walking into from having watched games and seeing how the team played before I arrived. But this is what I enjoy. I love that responsibility of getting on the ball and trying to make things happen. And I think playing alongside Lukas [Fadinger] is important because you see how good he is at receiving the ball in those what many would say ‘difficult’ scenarios, but he makes it look so easy. That’s what I like doing as a player too.
“We knew the level of Freiburg, and particularly in the home leg, we made a good account of ourselves, but I think it’s crucial we don’t lose sight of the obvious: we lost the game. We’re never going to be happy in glorious defeats. We looked at the home game, and we conceded set-piece goals which are totally avoidable. These are the small details that the manager is drilling into us. He’s all about how we can improve and get better and how we’ll never be content with losing and playing well.
“We’re in a position now where we need to start pushing into the league and picking up results consistently. I think we’re wasting our time if we’re not going into games thinking about winning, and that’s against any team. It doesn’t matter if it’s against Celtic at Parkhead or Rangers at Ibrox; we go in thinking like we did against Freiburg. We want to win.
“It’s not just about playing nice football for the sake of playing nice football for fans to enjoy watching; we need the result part. The idea is to build on last year and what the club achieved. I don’t want to put a limit on anything this group can achieve. We have a narrow focus throughout the season, and we’ll see where it takes us.”
