Republic of Ireland and Everton captain Séamus Coleman is set to return to the international scene for the final European Championships qualifier against the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Saturday, November 18th.
Having recovered from a medial knee ligament injury, sustained against Leicester City on May 1st, Coleman made two appearances for the Everton under-21 side, playing 45 minutes last Saturday and 66 minutes on Tuesday evening against Mansfield Town.
“He’s an inspiration,” said Everton coach Paul Tait. “What he’s done in the game, and what he’s done at Everton. We were lucky to have him for a couple of training sessions and we had him on Saturday for the game.
“It’s the standards he sets, and he’s got real enthusiasm for the game. It’s golden for our lads to be spending time with him, seeing how he prepares and seeing how committed he is. It’s been unbelievable to have him with us.”
Considering Coleman’s outstanding performance in his last Ireland match, when he man-marked France captain Kylian Mbappé during the 1-0 loss in Dublin last March, an immediate recall seems probable.
With Stephen Kenny’s future as Ireland manager to be decided at the end of November, the focus switches to what may prove his last squad selection, which he names at lunchtime on Thursday.
The Dutch game is followed by a friendly against New Zealand on Tuesday week at the Aviva Stadium, a fixture that has already been marked as James McClean’s last Ireland appearance.
This indicates a recall for McClean after the 34-year-old was cut from the squad before last month’s home defeat to Greece.
Kenny must also make a decision about selecting in-form Blackburn Roves duo Sammie Szmodics and Andy Moran.
Top scorer in the EFL Championship with nine goals, the uncapped Szmodics has departed early from the previous Ireland camps he was called into, with an injury in 2021 and for personal reasons last month.
Kenny indicated in October that Callum Robinson was picked ahead of the Blackburn captain as he did not intend to play Szmodics against Greece. However, the 28-year-old, who qualifies via his Longford grandmother, came into camp when Aaron Connolly withdrew injured.
Moran was also overlooked in October as Kenny wanted the midfielder to play for the under-21s against Latvia before featuring in the dead rubber against Gibraltar, but the 19-year-old missed out on his first cap after sustaining an ankle injury in Riga.
With only four Irish players – Evan Ferguson, Dara O’Shea, Chiedozie Ogbene and Nathan Collins – featuring for Premier League clubs last weekend, the majority of the squad will come from the EFL Championship, despite Kenny describing the English second tier as an unsuitable environment from which to build a successful international team.
“It’s an occupational hazard being in that league,” said Kenny after the 4-0 defeat of Gibraltar when he used eight Championship players. “I have no problem with the standard of the Championship but it is relentless, with games every three days. The players are absolutely on their knees and what happens then is you have repeat hamstring injuries.”
Robinson, Michael Obafemi and Callum O’Dowda are three players Kenny could not select due to injury.
“The more players we get in the Premier League and European leagues the better as it’s one game a week. The Championship is tough and relentless. To have consistency in the squad would be ideal,” added Kenny.
Rotherham United striker Georgie Kelly lends credence to Kenny’s concern, even if a move from the 46-game Championship to most European leagues would require a pay cut.
“There is a lot of talk about the amount of load on players, both physically and emotionally,” said Kelly, who moved from Bohemians to Rotherham in January 2022. “Critics don’t see that players are going into games sore and aching, as they play Saturday and Tuesday.
“Players are dosed up on anti-inflammatories and pain killers. People don’t see that players are literally playing while struggling. They have a go at someone for having a bad game or for missing chances but the player is struggling to just get on the pitch.
“Our treatment room is packed every morning with lads aching and managing issues. You just have to batten down and get through it.”
Ironically, the 26-year-old Donegal native craves more game time, having only played 883 minutes in the Championship across 38 matches since scoring the goal that promoted Rotherham from League One in April 2022.
“The way it works over here is we barely train between matches, about 40 minutes of passing, but you don’t train hard as the lads are literally trying to recover for two days after games and then they have another game the following day.
“To be honest, I don’t know how they are going to cut down the amount of games as there is that much demand. With TV money involved, it is a difficult equation to solve.”
