Callum Robinson has shaken off a slight thigh injury to start for the Republic of Ireland in this evening's crunch Euro 2020 qualifier against Switzerland.

The agony and ecstasy riff is a familiar one in sport but rarely can it have had a more literal application than to the bittersweet situation in which Alan Judge found himself at the conclusion of Ireland’s 1-1 draw with Denmark in Copenhagen in June.

In spite of the tumultuous events of our time, be sure life will go on regardless.

Should Jeff Hendrick play against Switzerland tomorrow night, the game will mark his 50th cap for Ireland.

At the half-way point in Euro 2020 qualifying, the good news for Ireland is that they sit atop the group table with a healthy haul of ten points from four games.

Hendrick’s sweet volley handed Burnley the lead against the run of play, Chelsea failing to clear a corner.

Mick McCarthy had talked before this one about how his ambition was to win with style, and his team certainly delivered on both counts to the delight of the Aviva last night.

It was against Georgia at Lansdowne Road in 2015 that Jeff Hendrick announced himself on the Irish scene, but his mission in tonight’s rematch is to restore rather than enhance his reputation.

Unlike the ultra-defensive Gibraltar, Mick McCarthy can expect Georgia to adopt a more orthodox 4-1-4-1 formation that held Switzerland scoreless for close to an hour last Saturday.

Spain captain Sergio Ramos scored for the fifth international in succession as his side made a winning start to Euro 2020 qualification against Norway.

A win, any kind of win, was the minimum requirement considering all the negativity that surrounded the final months of Martin O’Neill’s tenure.

This was a story of gale force rather than gael force, as a struggling Ireland scrambled to a 1-0 victory against lowly Gibraltar.

Martin O’Neill can’t have been all that happy with Age Hareide’s take on last year’s World Cup play-off second leg when the Danish coach sarcastically thanked the Irish manager for offering Christian Eriksen the freedom of Dublin.

Tony Cascarino has become the latest former Ireland international to criticise Roy Keane’s actions as Ireland assistant boss – stating that the former Man United great was ‘anything but a professional’.

Very few of us paid attention when Greg Cunningham’s transfer from Preston to Cardiff City went through in June.

Jesse Lingard’s second-half heroics may have plastered over some of the cracks in Manchester United’s season, but Jose Mourinho was left to count the cost of a damaging six days.

Bournemouth 1 Burnley 2: Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe endured a miserable 40th birthday, as former club Burnley continued their fine away form with a 2-1 win at the Vitality Stadium.

Burnley 0 Arsenal 1: Alexis Sanchez kept his composure to defeat Burnley with a last-minute penalty, again, but an important Arsenal victory that lifted Arsene Wenger’s side into the top four also offered a painful vision of their future.

Martin O’Neill has spoken in the past of how he likes the all or nothing games, of how knowing that only a victory will do helps “clear the mind.”

Average golfers have a saying: ‘It’s not how, it’s how many’.

It’s not often that the great minds of the Irish management team and the Irish media think alike but such was the case this week when we asked Roy Keane for his thoughts on how Shane Duffy has progressed to the point where he is now widely regarded as the rock of the Irish defence and one of the most consistent centre-halves in the Premier League.

Harry Arter’s Plan B when a thigh injury ruled him out of last year’s European Championships was a holiday in Marbella with a bunch of mates followed by a stint in Barcelona with his partner.

Roy Keane has challenged Ireland’s players to overcome one last obstacle in their bid to reach a first World Cup since 2002.

Sean Dyche celebrated his fifth anniversary as Burnley manager with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle that moved them up to seventh.

Martin O’Neill has said he would be disappointed if James McClean was not feeling frustrated about his restricted game time at West Brom.

Forget weary Wembley’s limp and half-hearted response to England’s recent qualification for Russia, forget those cynics who say international football doesn’t matter - anyone wanting to get a real flavour of what the World Cup really means should take a look at what happened on an historic night in Cardiff.

It must be the dawn of a new era when one of Ireland’s great recoveries didn’t require the deft touches of Wes Hoolahan, but this wasn’t an evening for silken skills.

Jeff Hendrick praised the spirit shown by the Republic of Ireland as they claimed second spot in Group D with a smash-and-grab raid against Wales in Cardiff.

James McClean sent the Republic of Ireland into a World Cup play-off as Wales' hopes of qualification were ended by a 1-0 defeat in Cardiff.

“We have to win the games and the equation is really simple,” was Martin O’Neill’s decisive summation yesterday, as he contemplated Ireland’s World Cup qualifying landscape with two group games to go.

He’s been described as many things during this changeable World Cup campaign but ‘Mystical Martin O’Neill’ could be one label Ireland’s manager is content with as he predicted this strange predicament facing his team in next month’s concluding qualifiers.

At the Irish team’s hotel in Castleknock yesterday, a few of the senior players told Martin O’Neill about how much of a challenge they think Saturday’s World Cup qualifier in Tbilisi is going to be — and the manager was delighted to hear of their concern.

While Darren Randolph was earning plaudits for his role in helping Middlesbrough keep a clean sheet against Preston – including one fine save to deny ex-Cork City man Sean Maguire – his Ireland understudy Keiren Westwood was having a much less happy time of it in the Championship on Saturday.

Republic of Ireland footballer Jeff Hendrick has been found not guilty of violent disorder.

A court has heard a friend of footballer Jeff Hendrick’s told gardaí people often call him ignorant if he doesn’t say hello, because he’s a footballer.

Latest: The row between professional footballer Jeff Hendrick and another man was just “drunken handbags”, according to his barrister.

A Dublin man has said that he was left with multiple fractures to his jaw following an attack by a group of men.

Writing here on the eve of Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Austria, I was full of confidence that we were going to win, perhaps even with a bit to spare, writes Liam Brady.

Martin O’Neill has succinctly laid out the terms of engagement for Ireland against Austria in their World Cup qualifier next Sunday.

The Republic of Ireland have beaten Uruguay 3-1 in their international friendly in Dublin.

Burnley finished the season with four Irish starters: one of the few highlights for Irish players in the Premier League this season, says John Fallon 

George Boyd's first-time finish put Burnley well on the way to Premier League safety as they ended an eight-match winless streak with victory over Stoke at Turf Moor.

Jeff Hendrick’s journey from fringe squad member to cog in the Irish midfield was all but completed at last summer’s European Championships in France but the Burnley player couldn’t help but baulk yesterday at the suggestion that he is some sort of ‘senior’ pro now.