Harry Arter: 'If Stephen Kenny hadn't made the call I wouldn't be sitting here now'

Harry Arter in Ireland training at The Hive in Barnet, London. After a series of loan moves and injury, Arter is looking to get his career up and running again with Nottingham Forest at club level and with Ireland. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Seventeen caps in the five years since his debut is a none-too-subtle nod to the fact that Harry Arter’s Ireland career hasn’t always gone according to plan since making his debut against tomorrow’s opponents at the Aviva Stadium five years ago.

It’s not that there haven’t been high points. There was a man-of-the-match display on his first start, against the Netherlands in May of 2016; a superb performance in the World Cup qualifier win away to Austria later that year; and a crucial role in the 1-0 defeat of Wales in Cardiff in late 2017 which secured a playoff spot at the end of that same campaign.