Enigmatic Ireland return on hold

Ireland caretaker manager Noel King has revealed he hoped to name Stephen Ireland in his first squad but, having established contact with the player, says he fully understands his reasons for postponing a return to international duty.

King has seen the Cobh man in action for his club Stoke City twice in the last week, spoke to the player’s agent and exchanged text messages with Ireland himself.

Asked if he would have liked to include him in his panel for the games against Germany and Kazakhstan, King replied: “Well, I went to see him, yes. He is not ready but I would have looked at it, which is what I did. I got on to him, he got back to me, I got back to him, he left me a message, I spoke to the agent and so on. It was good, I have to say. [In the message] he was just expressing the things that he’s said [in public] and his agent said. He’s on the comeback road, he wants to get strong, he wants to get playing in his team as a regular and he wants to come back and play for Ireland at some stage.”