"Nationality: English", says the Aston Villa official website profile for the club's 20-year-old centre half Gary Cahill. But Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton has, he said yesterday, been working on persuading the player to declare for the country of his grandparents' birth, perhaps even in time to join the Irish squad for next month's training camp in the Algarve, ahead of the May 23rd friendly against Chile in Dublin.

Cahill, scorer of a spectacular goal for Villa in Sunday's Birmingham derby, on only his fourth appearance for the club, was already known to Staunton from his playing days at Villa, and his progress, after a loan spell at Burnley last season, has been monitored by Kevin MacDonald, Staunton's assistant and reserve-team manager at the club.

"I've known the boy for a long time," said Staunton. "We've had plenty of chat, so we'll see. I don't want to put too much pressure on people, they do it in their own time and they do it for the right reasons. He's in the limelight now but I got on to him when I first got the job, so that'll tell you. He's got great potential, he's only 20, he's six foot two, takes no prisoners."

And scores spectacular goals?

"Well, that was a bit of a shock to me," he laughed. "If he can do that as well that'll be a bonus. But it's down to the boy. He's got a big choice to make, a big decision. They all have a lot of pressure, whether it be from families, agents, clubs, so you've got to be careful. He's having a good think. It looks fairly positive, but I don't want to say too much, it puts him under pressure and then you splash the headlines and he'll be thinking, 'Oh my God, what's been said?'"

Staunton intends taking a squad of 30 to Portugal but whether the Newcastle right-back Stephen Carr, who announced his retirement from international football last October, returns to the fold in time for the trip remains to be seen.

"I spoke to Stephen last week and I'll be speaking to him again next week," said Staunton. "Will he come to Portugal? That will be down to Stephen Carr. I understand his situation and he understands mine, but he knows what his own body can and can't do.

"It's like those we were talking about with the ancestry rule. We know of plenty (who qualify to play for Ireland), but it's whether they want to play for us or not, that's down to them. We can only try and encourage and coax, but if they don't want to play for us I don't want to know."