I’m sorry I had to quit Ireland, says Villain Lowry

ASTON VILLA’S young defender Shane Lowry has apologised to Ireland for switching his allegiance to his country of birth, Australia.

The Ireland U21 international is part of a 23-man Australia training squad in Dubai preparing for the crunch Asian Cup qualifying match against Kuwait and the 20-year-old admits he could not say no to Australia when they came calling.

“At the end of the day, I have always seen myself as an Aussie,” said Lowry, who was born in Perth and left to join Villa when he was 15.

“I felt I was an Aussie playing for Ireland – all my background is Irish, and they gave me an opportunity to play international football when I was young, which was a good thing.

“Australia hadn’t really been in contact when I was younger, but when Australia came in for me, there was only one decision in my mind. Ireland were really good to me, I thank them for that, but I wanted to play for Australia.”

Lowry represented Ireland at U17, U19 and U21 levels and U21 boss Don Givens said he rated the youngster highly and he conducted himself in the right manner when he decided to be a Socceroo.

“He’s a good lad, who phoned me up and did everything in the right manner. We’ve won a lot of players in the past with the Granny rule so we can’t say too much.”

The 20-year-old confirmed he is looking to go out to another club again this season.

“Ideally I would like to go out on loan again because, realistically, I am not going to play for the first team at the moment because there are a lot of experienced defenders there flying at the moment.”