James McClean crucial to Ireland’s hopes of beating Poles

At one point yesterday, Roy Keane and James McClean stood metres away from each other, dozens of microphones in their faces, and yet neither sounded likely to throw the sort of verbal grenade previously lobbed into the media sphere. Changed times.

Keane has a few years on McClean, but the 25-year old’s career has already been peppered with controversies, not least his refusal to wear the poppy and the sectarian abuse received on the back of that and his declaration for the Republic. His Irish career hasn’t been aloof from headlines of the wrong kind either, what with his critical tweet after being left on the bench against Kazakhstan in 2012 serving as a prime example of his rather fraught association with social media.

This, then, was a more mature McClean performance. The ankle injury that curtailed his preparations this week isn’t ideal, but Martin O’Neill harbours an obvious grá for his fellow Derry man. It was O’Neill who gave him his debut at Sunderland and he has invariably picked him for Ireland, too. If McClean is fit he will almost certainly start on the left wing and his directness and physicality may well be crucial in seeking a win which would be Ireland’s first in a home competitive game against serious group rivals since the defeat of the Dutch in 2001.