When Darren O'Dea signed for Metalurh Donetsk in July 2013, he was apprehensive, but had no idea just what lay in store for him in Ukraine.
The Irish defender, who was just 26 years old at the time, left the stability of MLS side Toronto FC, where he was at one point the highest paid non-designated player in the league, and traded it in for a three-year contract in eastern Ukraine.
It was a plunge of faith for the former Celtic centre-back and it turned into something quite different from merely playing football.
That is because, in February 2014, tensions between Russia and Ukraine spilled over into military action in Crimea and the east of the country following the removal of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Suddenly O'Dea and his Metalurh team-mates were concerned about more than just trying to push up the table to secure a Europa League for the first time in the club's history.
Darren O'Dea won two Scottish Premier League titles with Celtic ( Image: Daily Record)
'Very strange situation'
During the winter break, O'Dea had the difficult decision over whether to return to Ukraine from his family home in Scotland for the second half of his debut season with his new club.
“It's a very strange situation,” O'Dea told The Telegraph at the time.
“Obviously your life is the most important thing but I've got a three year contract here, I can't exactly walk out, I've got to do what is right by the club.”
O'Dea chose to honour his contract and return to Donetsk, where further unrest awaited him and his team-mates.
With Russian action ramping up in Crimea in the south, political conflict in Kyiv in the west and pro-Russian separatists operating in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east, there was a lot to keep up to date.
O'Dea was forced to stay at the club's training ground and work alongside a mixture of Ukrainian, Russian and Brazilian players.
Darren O'Dea left Toronto FC for Metalurh Donetsk ( Image: Lucas Oleniuk/Getty Images)
“I have been into the city two or three times, I am living at the training ground because it is safer to live there,” he said in March 2014.
“The city has been quiet until Wednesday night. That was the first sign it could turn a little bit worse but it did not escalate too badly. I'm taking it day-by-day at the minute.”
Terrifying confrontation
O'Dea made it to the end of the 2013/14 season, with Metalurh finishing sixth in the Ukrainian Premier League, but the backdrop of chaos was getting worse, rather than receding.
Russia was not backing down and the situation of Donetsk, in the east of Ukraine, near the border with its neighbour, meant more problems for O'Dea.
With separatists emboldened, Metalurh were forced to move from their home ground in Donetsk to a resort elsewhere.
But they couldn't simply carry on as usual, with travel to away games becoming a task that was fraught with difficulty.
O'Dea recalls one particularly trying experience of travelling south to war-torn Crimea for an away game.
A no-fly zone had been enforced, meaning a 10-hour coach journey, on which they were intercepted by pro-Russian forces. As one of six foreign players, alongside five Brazilians, O'Dea was not welcomed without a visa.
Pro-Russian militants were part of life in Donetsk in 2014 ( Image: MENAHEM KAHANA/Getty Images)
A five-hour stand-off ensued, which included a terrifying confrontation with the rebel troops, who were wearing balaclavas and were armed with machine guns.
“After three hours, a few of us needed the toilet so we went over the road,” O'Dea told the Irish Mirror in 2014.
“Immediately there was shouting and screaming and I turned round to see guns pointing at us. The soldiers were going absolutely berserk.
“The Ukrainian lads understood what was being said, so they scarpered back to the bus.
“I wasn't scared. I was just angry because I needed the toilet and the translator was going crazy, telling me to get back.
“I don't know if they thought we were going to make a run for it, but there was nowhere to go. At that stage I just wanted to go home.”
Breaking point
That incident proved to be the beginning of the end for O'Dea in Ukraine.
Although he wanted to stay loyal to his club, who had committed a significant amount of money to his wages, he could not live any longer away from his family in a warzone.
In August 2014, the defender decided enough was enough and managed to come to an agreement with Metalurh to cancel his contract two years early.
Football continued in Donetsk in 2014, despite the ongoing conflict ( Image: Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/Getty Images)
"Things have escalated. Where the team is now based, you could call it a holiday resort, but it's not a place where you'd ever want to go on holiday. Donetsk is a no-go place at the moment,” he explained to BBC Sport in September 2014.
"The town has been completely taken over by pro-Russian forces, so as far as I know our training ground has been taken over. Lads' cars have been taken off them, whatever was left there is now the soldiers'. They go into shops and take clothes and food as they please.
"I came to a decision because I can't see how things can get much better in the near future. Metalurh understood where I was coming from, that I can't live without my family, so we came to an agreement for me to leave.
“They wanted me to stay, but it was impossible. It's tough enough for me to live in Ukraine as it is, but to live in those conditions made it impossible.”
O'Dea was forced to give up a wage three times that he could have earned in British football due to the ongoing conflict around him in Ukraine. It was a wise decision, with Metalurh being dissolved a year later after going bankrupt.
He signed for Blackpool in December 2014 and went on another adventure with Mumbai City before finishing his career with a spell at Dundee.
He is now the coach of Celtic's B team – but nothing will ever compare to his time in the warzone of Ukraine.
"Donetsk is a very small city, so it was tough to live in," O'Dea told the BBC.
Football paled in insignificance in Ukraine in 2014 ( Image: ALEXANDR OSINSKIY/Getty Images)
"There wasn't much to do, but the people were the plus side to it. Once you get to know them they're lovely and very friendly.
“Once I got used to their way, I was absolutely fine, but did I enjoy living there? I'd be lying if I said I did. I enjoyed the football and loved the experience of it.
"There were a lot of things that were difficult at the time, but it's made me a more rounded person and opened up my eyes to the world. It was a different type of football.
“There were a lot of Brazilians and it's a fantastic league in terms of standard, but things outside of football got involved and it became a place I couldn't live in any more."