David McGoldrick’s shock retirement a huge blow for Stephen Kenny and Ireland

Republic of Ireland striker David McGoldrick has announced his retirement from international football. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire.

Stephen Kenny’s worst fears were realised tonight when his talisman David McGoldrick dropped a bombshell by retiring from international football.

Although the Sheffield United striker will be 33 next month, and was injury-prone, he was Kenny’s only forward option lining out regularly in the Premier League.

Once fit, as occurred for last month’s Euro play-off semi-final in Slovakia, McGoldrick was the first-choice occupier of the sole striker’s slot in the formation Kenny swears by.

The Ireland manager only last month expressed his relief at McGoldrick prolonging his international career amid the managerial changeover from the boss he flourished under, Mick McCarthy.

“When I took over, Sheffield United looked like they were going to qualify for Europe, which would mean extras games,” explained Kenny, who stepped up from the U21 role in April.

“David is a family man with a good-sized family. He’s 32, nearly 33 and you wonder whether a player would say: ‘I’ve to focus on my club’. It happens a lot at that age group.

“That wasn’t what I got from him at all. I got quite the opposite. He was absolutely desperate to play.

“His relationship with Mick McCarthy, Mick had him at Ipswich and all of that, so when I took over I was wondering in my own head, ‘Is he going to relax and take a bit of a back seat to focus on club football?’ “He’s been outstanding ever since he walked through the door and he’s enjoying his football.

“David is such an important member of the group. He gives us something a little bit different in terms of our link-up play and the way we play.”

Clearly convinced he’d dodged that retirement bullet, Kenny’s best-laid plan evapourated in a brief statement released by the FAI.

There wasn’t even a word from either the player or manager in the update.

Kenny will instead give his views tomorrow when announcing his squad for this month’s triple-header.

That McGoldrick won’t be in his panel for the friendly against England next Thursday, followed by the Uefa Nations League concluding double-header with Wales and Bulgaria, wasn’t in the script.

Similar to his club career, McGoldrick was a slow starter at international level. Declaring for Ireland wasn’t part of the Nottingham-born player’s childhood dreams but it changed when the adoptee researched the ancestry of his birth parents.

“I’ve only recently become aware of so much personal stuff, a lot of things I didn’t know about” he said before making his debut in 2014 against the USA.

“It took a while to process my eligibility through grandparents but it was the right decision.”

His relationship with Martin O’Neill during those early years was mixed, underlined by McGoldrick missing the cut for the Euro 2016 finals, but McCarthy got the best from him during his brief reign.

McGoldrick grabbed the only goal of his 14 caps in the 1-1 draw against Switzerland 14 months ago and won the FAI Player of the Year.

His abrupt withdrawal from the international stage will only hasten the elevation of Adam Idah and Troy Parrott to more prominent roles in Kenny’s grand plan.