Tony Cascarino is entitled to ponder life's little eccentricities as he awaits Mick McCarthy's team plans for the resumption of World Cup hostilities with Romania at Lansdowne Road.
For a period of four years, beginning with the European Championship fixture in Turkey in November 1991, he wasn't invited to start a competitive game for Ireland. Now, it seems, he is being groomed for a higher station.
The announcement of a team captain to replace the injured Andy Townsend is being withheld under the Official Secrets Act until minutes before McCarthy pushes his players out through the dressingroom door on Saturday.
But the word from those known to the tabloids as "insiders" is that Cascarino, now the sole surviving player from those introduced to the national team by Eoin Hand, will be given the honour of leading them out.
Mark you, it will not be the first occasion that he has worn the captain's armband. When Townsend retired, to be replaced by Cascarino in the closing minutes of the opening World Cup qualifier in Liechtenstein last August, he handed the armband to the man coming on. And Cas, never one to look the gift horse in the mouth, accepted without demur.
He assumed responsibility for the bridge in similar circumstances during the recent win in Iceland but, if one excepts the Eoin Hand testimonial game, this, it seems, will be the first occasion that he has been pre-assigned the job.
"Captain Cas - that sounds nice," he told his audience yesterday. "If I get the job, fine, but the bigger thrill by far would be to learn that I'm actually in the team.
"I've now played 73 times for Ireland and it's still a very special honour every time I'm named in the side. I've a great rapport with the Irish public but other players will tell you that for them, too, it's a big thrill to be involved."
Given that he has had to compete with Niall Quinn, something of a national idol in football terms, it's no mean feat for Cascarino, an affable Cockney of Irish ancestry, to have made his way into so many Irish hearts. Neither should his achievement in scoring 18 international goals be understated.
Only Frank Stapleton, Don Givens and John Aldridge have done better and in Aldo's case, a big proportion of his strikes came from the penalty spot. And yet, he doesn't consider himself to be in the same class as Aldridge as a goal-scorer.
"Every time John stepped on the pitch, you expected him to score - it was like part of his destiny," says Cascarino. "But in my case, I survived because I made almost as many as I scored." But if that sounds self deprecating, Stapleton is ready to redress things.
"He's a good guy and much better at putting the ball in the net than he gives himself credit for. If my record is to go - and it will at some point - it couldn't end up with a nicer fellow."
In his time, Cascarino has been punched, kicked and even spat upon by opponents. But he's never had a card of any hue in his Ireland career. And given the horde currently walking the yellow line, that surely is a cause of justifiable pride for the big man.
Cascarino's current club, AS Nancy of France, have a Romanian coach, and if he is to be believed, it's going to be another difficult day for the Irish. "He tells me that they're coming to Dublin to keep their 100 per cent record and they aim to do it by stealth," says the striker.
"They are, apparently, ready to sit back and soak up pressure in the hope of catching us on the break. That doesn't suggest a lot of room in and around their penalty area but, frankly, I'd be surprised if it were otherwise.
"Even with the new rules and regulations, life up front is still the most difficult in football. But for all the kicks and scrapes, I wouldn't have it otherwise."
