Martin O’Neill patience finally rewarded by Scott Hogan stand on declaring for Ireland

Aston Villa striker Scott Hogan wants to declare for Ireland and is in with an outside chance of being added to Martin O’Neill’s squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Serbia.

The Salford-born 24-year-old qualifies through three of his grandparents, and the FAI and the player are now going through the necessary paperwork to acquire his Irish passport. The resolution of that process may well come too late for the next two games but, following his provisional squad announcement in Dublin yesterday, O’Neill said that such a call-up was “not impossible”, adding, “from his conversation with me, he was certainly keen to get up and running”.

Springing to prominence as a prolific striker for Brentford, Hogan had previously resisted overtures from O’Neill on the grounds that, having recovered from two serious knee injuries, he wanted to concentrate on his club career.