Robbie Keane: One thing about me, I always turned up

“It’s the first time — which is ironic — that my young son Hudson is going to walk out with me and it’s my last time ever to play for Ireland. So it’s going to be a special moment and something I will certainly treasure.”

So said Robbie Keane, with a discernible catch in his voice, as he gave his final pre-match press conference as an Irish player at FAI headquarters.

And if yesterday was not short of emotion — and that in the company of the hard-bitten press corps — one can only imagine how overwhelming tomorrow night is going to be for Ireland’s greatest scorer and most-capped player, as his team-mates, family, friends and the massed ranks of the Green Army show him the love in his native Dublin on what will be his final appearance in the green shirt.