Seamus Coleman: ‘I never doubted for a second I’d get back playing football’

Officially, the Irish attendance in the Antalya Stadium this evening will be 236 but we can expect the welcome from the little green army to far exceed that number in sheer delight when Seamus Coleman leads the Irish team onto the field of play, just one day short of the first anniversary of the sickening leg break which he suffered against Wales at the Aviva Stadium on March 24 last year.

Asked yesterday how, 12 months on, he reflects on the Neil Taylor challenge which inflicted so much damage that night, the Donegal man replied in measured tones: “I haven’t even thought of Neil Taylor five times since the injury. He played a part in the tackle, and it wasn’t a great tackle. I was going for the ball, he was a bit high. But these things happen in a tough international fixture.

“If I hold any grudge against him it’s not going to help me in my rehab. He has to get on with his journey and I have to get on with mine. If I hold any anger towards him it won’t help me. Let him carry on with what he has to do, and I’ll crack on myself.