Robbie Keane and James McCarthy are facing a race against time to be fit for the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2016 opener against Sweden.
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Ireland boss Martin O’Neill announced his final squad for the tournament after a second-string team lost 2-1 to Belarus in a friendly in Cork on Tuesday.
“A lot of people sit around and think well it’s not the right move for me so you give Aiden a little bit of credit for that”.
‘I thought it was going to be a lot longer. Whatever was said about it being down in Cork and the pitch and it was sunny – forget that.
Keane struck out at a variety of excuses attached to players” form, including those carrying “knocks’.
“Anyone here who has played sport, injuries are part and parcel of the game and we had no control”.
“He’s a confident lad, he has had a good season at club level and it was good to get him on because it’s good to work with young players who have not been brainwashed yet”. Don’t be starting to think about how many points you might get from a certain game.
Keane said: “When you are away from your family and you are with the team for a long period of time, sometimes it can be frustrating, it can get boring if players are not playing”.
“Aiden has had a taste for football, I know he’s not played the last few weeks but he did take that decision to leave Everton and get some action”, declared Keane.
Keane, speaking to FAI TV, said: “It’s never nice when you get injured at this stage with the the European Championships but lucky for me it’s not as bad as I first thought”.
The 35-year-old hasn’t played for Ireland since the loss to Poland last October.
Despite missing out on the final cut, the Oxford winger has stayed on with the 23-man squad after making his debut for the Boys in Green.
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“We wanted to kill some of them [the players] last night”, Keane is quoted as saying by the Irish Independent. If the manager is not sure about who to start with, put yourself up against a good player and sort yourselves out. We trained this morning, the Glen Whelans, the Jon Walters, the Seamus Colemans – I didn’t have to push any of them this morning.
