Excited Ireland closing on Irish recall

Stoke 1 Hull 0

The Stoke midfielder, 27, has confirmed he has had contact with the hierarchy of the international side and expects more talks in the near future.

The Cork-born player has not featured for his country since withdrawing from a squad in 2007, lying to the FAI that his grandmother had died.

Martin O’Neill’s appointment as manager has once again raised the issue of his return and the topic was brought into the spotlight last week when assistant manager Roy Keane revealed that one of Ireland’s grandmothers had asked him to recall the midfielder.

Ireland, who has been offered a three-year deal to stay at Stoke beyond this summer, claims he is now reaching a point with his club football where he could consider a return to the international stage.

He said: “I’ve had some brief contact with them but nothing major about my future or returning, anything like that. That’ll be in the near future. It’s something we can have a chat about, we’ll have to assess it.”

Asked if he was excited about the prospect of a potential return and felt ready for it, he said: “Yes, I think so. It’s hard to make that sort of decision when your club football’s not going so well for you. It makes no sense.

“So the more and more I play here, and the more consistency I get on the pitch, the more I can look at those options. But you don’t look at those options before they happen.”

Ireland has only made eight Premier League starts since joining from Aston Villa, initially on loan, in August.

But, alongside fellow attacking midfielders Marko Arnautovic and Peter Odemwingie, he has become an increasingly important figure under new manager Mark Hughes.

It is all some way from his final days at Villa, where he was left to train with the youth team under Paul Lambert after failing to make an impression under a succession of managers.

He credits Hughes, who got the best out of him at Manchester City, with a large share of the credit for his resurgence but feels there is still much more to come.

“I still get frustrated with myself, because I have high expectations of myself on the pitch. I know there’s a lot more to come from me,” Ireland added.

“That excites me too, I have a good future ahead of myself if I stay at Stoke, the players have been great for me.

“The Villa thing is a really long, strange story, purely because I had five managers in two and half seasons.

“For some reason, as soon as they walked through the door, they decided I wasn’t for them — no matter about all my good intentions.

“In the summer, it was difficult for me to know where I was going to be. Would I be playing in the Championship? Would I be going on loan?

“I just thank Stoke for bringing me in here and taking care of me, I want to repay them with my performances. I cherish my chance here and would like to secure my future for as long as possible.

“I’m starting to find my feet and get my instincts back, my sharpness back, I’m getting the hunger and the passion back too.”

Stoke were a long way off the fluency they showed in beating West Ham 3-1 and Aston Villa 4-1 in their last two matches and should have trailed when Liam Rosenior headed over from six yards. Asmir Begovic’s fine save denied David Meyler’s deflected shot before Ahmed Elmohamady’s bizarre cross-field pass let in Odemwingie to thump into the bottom corner as Stoke extended their impressive run to just one defeat — a 1-0 loss at Manchester City — in nine matches.

STOKE (4-2-3-1): Begovic 8; Cameron 6, Shawcross 7, Wilson 6, Pieters 7; Nzonzi 7, Whelan 6 (Palacios 82); Odemwingie 8, Ireland 7, Arnautovic 7 (Adam 85); Crouch 7 (Guidetti 86).

HULL (5-3-2): Harper 7; Elmohamady 5, Bruce 6 (Aluko 71), Chester 7, Davies 6, Rosenior 6; Livermore 6, Meyler 6, Huddlestone 5 (Quinn 82); Jelavic 6 (Sagbo 79), Long 6.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick