Finding a new goalscorer now top priority for Martin O’Neill

With record-breaker Robbie Keane expected to announce his international retirement in the aftermath of Euro 2016 and no other striker having stepped up to shoulder the goal load across the four games Ireland played in France, Martin O’Neill makes no secret the hunt for reliable goalscorer is now a top priority as builds towards the next World Cup.

“It would be nice to have a forward. We don’t have a Gareth Bale. We don’t have that. When Robbie doesn’t play — and obviously his career is in the latter stages — then we don’t actually have a natural goal scorer in that sense. If Robbie Keane had been 27, he would have been in our team in France. He would have been in the side because he is the one who can get us a goal. That’s what we’d been looking to do, for all the decent play we had. We need to try and get someone who can score regularly.”

Joe Mason at Wolves and Scott Hogan at Brentford are two candidates who have been making waves in front of goal, as O’Neill is well aware.