Duff didn’t want to be made a special case

For an international retiree, it was quite an eventful day yesterday as Damien Duff at first lost and then gained back a cap to retain his status as an Irish centurion.

The Fulham man was reportedly happy to have the situation resolved but only once it was made clear to him that the FAI’s decision also applied to his team-mates and that a special exemption was not being made for him.

The winger’s total of 100 caps — the last of which came in the European Championship game against Italy in Poznan — had appeared under threat after it emerged that, owing to an administrative error by the Hungarian FA, the Euros warm-up friendly between Ireland and Hungary in Budapest on June 4 was not recognised by Fifa as an official ‘A’-match.