Hard work and wise words do trick for crestfallen Keogh

The last time we’d seen Richard Keogh, there were tears coursing down his cheeks on the pitch at Wembley. Yesterday, they had been replaced by rivulets of sweat after a final training session in Malahide just hours before the Ireland squad flew to America.

And for the defender, whose mistake in the Championship play-off final helped QPR through to the Premier League at the expense of Derby County, getting back up into the saddle so quickly with Ireland has been the perfect tonic.

“It’s probably the best thing I could have done,” he said. “Everyone has been great. It’s kind of, ‘forget about it a little bit and concentrate on football’.