Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane has claimed he never “lost any sleep” after Jack Grealish’s decision to pledge his global future to England.
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“We have asked Roy but obviously he is on worldwide duty”, Beckham said of Keane, who is assistant to Republic manager Martin O’Neill.
The 35-year-old striker and his wife Claudine, who have six-year-old son Robert Jr, announced the news in a statement on his Facebook page.
As their own problems mount, the Irish management team are unlikely to have taken too much encouragement from the news that Lukas Podolski is ruled out for Germany on Thursday. As you would expect with any campaign, teams improve.
“Absolutely [Germany are better], but we are as well”, he said.
“If Shane starts I’m sure he’ll give us a lot”, said Keane.
Robbie Keane was asked whether or not he had heard namesake Roy’s breast-feeding jibe at his own press conference after joining up with the squad and issued an entertaining response.
“He’s made a journey across half the world to come and play in a game, in a match here, at his particular age”, said O’Neill.
“It’s going to be a hard game but the players are certainly not thinking about what happened against Germany the last time”.
Germany counterpart Joachim Low kept faith with nine of the men who started in Scotland last time out.
“When you’ve got a team that likes to keep possession of the ball, sometimes they can get a little bit carried away”, he observed. “But we will be ready”.
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Three days after hosting the Germans, the Irish conclude their group fixtures against second-placed Poland in Warsaw.
