Reid ‘gutted’ by Ireland absence

ANDY REID’S father revealed yesterday that the Sunderland midfielder is “gutted” about his continued absence from Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland squad.

The Dubliner has not been called up for national duty since the opening World Cup Group 8 qualifying doubleheader against Georgia in Mainz and Montenegro in Podgorica. That was 14 months ago.

The 27-year-old has consistently expressed his desire to play for his country despite his lengthening period of exile but he has never kicked a ball for Ireland under the Italian manager and looks unlikely to do so in the near future.

“He’s pretty gutted, I have to be honest,” his father Bill Reid told RTÉ yesterday.

“He is a very patriotic young fella. He is dying to play for us again. We support him. We were all over in Cyprus in the summer. We all still go to the matches. He would do anything to get back into it but it is obviously out of his hands.

“He’d walk across if he could. That’s the way he is. As I said, he is very patriotic. He never lost his accent or anything. He still has the Dublin accent. Do you know what I mean? A lot of fellas go away for a weekend and come back talking English,” he joked. “He’s still the same.”

Meanwhile Stephen Ireland has admitted he feared he was going to die when he was rushed to hospital after complaining of dizziness during a Carling Cup tie with Fulham.

The Manchester City star had no-one near him when he suddenly felt unwell in the match at Eastlands in September.

He was promptly substituted by Mark Hughes but when his symptoms failed to improve, he was taken to Hospital for tests.

In the end, no reason for Ireland’s strange turn was established and he was released during the early hours.

But the midfielder admitted at the time he was very worried.

“Thankfully it wasn’t too serious because at the time I thought that was the end of me,” he said.

“I don’t know what it was. I have had every test that there is and I still don’t know but it was a bit of a strange scare.

“It took me a while to get right but I am back on track. Everything is looking positive.”