Jon Walters happy to be back with Club Ireland

As much as he can’t hide his frustration at losing Ireland’s newly crowned player of 2016, Robbie Brady, to a needless suspension for the game against Wales, Martin O’Neill will be delighted that the player of 2015, Jon Walters, is available for selection on Friday after making a full recovery from a problematic knee injury.

Twice in the last 12 months, Walters has had to undergo surgery but now with two full games for Stoke — against Man City and Chelsea — under his belt, he is happy to declare himself “fresh and ready to go again” for his country.

“It was a tear in the meniscus — again,” he says of the recurring injury problem. “Looking back, I think I did it in the last game of last season. I’d had it operated on this time last year and then came back for the end of the season. I remember an incident in the last game, against West Ham, backing into someone, and I really caught it. At the time, I just thought it was a jarring of the knee, part and parcel of getting over an operation. But probably that was the incident that did it.”