Latest news with #HeimirHallgrímsson
The 42
9 hours ago
- Health
- The 42
'There is a line... you know what you can play through and what you can't'
EARLY JUNE AND credit to the League of Ireland for being prepared to pause for breath and allow its players a chance to recharge. The final stages of the Nations League take place in Germany over the next week, before FIFA's expanded Club World Cup kicks off on 15 June in the United States. So, no time for beaten Champions League finalists Inter Milan to dwell on that sobering 5-0 defeat to PSG as they will be back in action. An Irishman will also feature on that opening weekend when Kildare native Dylan Connolly turns out for New Zealand's fully amateur outfit Auckland City against European royalty Bayern Munich. This month will be filled with games before the final in New Jersey on 13 July; a date sandwiched between both legs of Shelbourne's Champions League first-round qualifying tie. By that point, Premier League clubs will also be back in pre-season action ahead of the 2025/26 campaign and, just six days after the Club World Cup final, Manchester United will play Leeds United in a friendly in Stockholm. On and on it goes, as seasons blend into one. The Republic of Ireland, of course, have two friendlies of their own over the next week as preparations continue for a condensed World Cup qualifying campaign that means September through to November is make or break for manager Heimir Hallgrímsson. He opted to leave out the majority of his Championship players from this squad so they could have the benefit of longer holidays this summer before – as the Ireland boss put it – they spent next year on duty at the World Cup. Someone who has been able to take time to relax on a couch is John Egan, who was a guest on a special live show for the Second Captains podcast in Cork last week. The 32-year-old still harbours ambition to play a role in those qualifiers in the autumn after rebuilding fitness and form over the last nine months with Burnley and Hull City. Advertisement An achilles injury in September 2023 brought a premature end to Egan's Premier League career as well as his time at Sheffield United, a club he helped earn promotion to England's top flight on two occasions. He explained on Second Captains how he went into a match with West Ham with injuries to his ankle and knee but didn't want to pull out of the starting XI as it had been a tough start to the season. 'When you're carrying an injury, it affects the rest of your body if you keep playing. That's advice I'll give to any young fellas or any people with young kids, going forward mind your body because you know you get an injury somewhere, it could be affecting you somewhere else,' he said. 'It cost me the rest of the season, probably cost me the rest of my Sheffield United career, which was sad. Yeah, I think it's (playing while injured) definitely an Irish thing. You kind of feel embarrassed if you don't train or you don't play, you know? That's how I felt anyway, and then you get the Europeans coming in and they've a little knock, they don't play and you think 'come on, man, just play', [but] they're going to be still playing when they're 40, if they want. 'I've learned the hard way. If I could go back I wouldn't play that game. I'd wait until I was right or until I had a two or three-year contract behind me. That's the be all and end all.' Those words, combined with a further elongation of the club and country calendar, seemed all the more prescient when Jason Knight was put up as the Ireland player on media duty yesterday. Now captain at Bristol City and still only 24-years-old, he played every minute of his side's 46-game regular campaign as well as the defeat over two legs to Sheffield United in the play-offs. That's even more impressive when you consider he was coming off the back of the 2023/24 season when he also played 3,848 minutes of 4,140 available. Jason Knight with John O'Shea (background). Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO Knight did manage a two-week break before joining the squad – Preston's Robbie Brady the other Championship player required for duty – and accepts it's hard to argue with Egan's regrets. 'John is probably right. There is a line and as you get older you get more experienced and you know what you can play through and what you can't,' he said. 'There's always knocks and niggles you can get through but I have been fortunate to get through the season without hurting myself too badly so a bit of luck as well. You can always get through a certain pain barrier and get on to the pitch.' That posed an obvious question: what is the line for you? 'If the leg isn't off, I suppose,' Knight said. John O'Shea, Ireland's assistant head coach, was sitting alongside the midfielder at the press conference and expanded on the kind of attitude and application that makes Knight so important. 'He is naturally leading now, vocally but also performance and intensity-wise. If we are doing a drill in training, you know if Knighty is involved in it that it is going to take care of itself and that is brilliant for a coaching staff, to have that and to see that reliability. 'It's also a trust to know what he is going to produce for the team as well. He has grown into the role for club and country. I'm sure there's lots of people looking at him and I'm sure Bristol City are very happy with him too. 'There's always that element of him being new school and old school, but it is a good school that he is from. Hopefully it continues.' Interest from other clubs for Knight is not at a stage where any transfer could be imminent. 'It's been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks,' he said. Things move quickly in football and Knight knows that. 'I want to be ambitious. I want to play in the top division. But I'm relaxed, if it's now or in the future, that will be. I've just got to keep performing well to get to that point.' And if that means another summer still on the clock at the biggest show of all next summer then so be it.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Caoimhín Kelleher finalising €21m move from Liverpool to Brentford
Caoimhín Kelleher will be a late arrival into the Republic of Ireland camp on Tuesday as the 26-year-old is undergoing a medical at Brentford . Ireland face Senegal at the Aviva Stadium on Friday before an end of season friendly in Luxembourg on June 10th. Mark Flekken, Brentford's starting goalkeeper last season, also underwent a medical on Monday at Bayer Leverkusen before the Dutch international's £8 million (€10m) sale to the German club. To replace Flekken, Brentford are expected to pay Liverpool an initial £12.5 million (€15m) for Kelleher with performance related add-ons increasing the transfer fee to £18 million (€21m). READ MORE Leeds United and West Ham United were also interested in signing Kelleher but the Cork man is expected to link up with Ireland captain Nathan Collins as Brentford manager Thomas Frank attempts to improve the club's 10th place finish in the Premier League next season. The other 22 players named by Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson trained at Abbotstown on Monday morning. Hallgrímsson has rested the majority of Irish players in the EFL Championship, like Burnley's Josh Cullen and Middlesbrough's Finn Azaz, as the June friendlies land in the middle of their off-season. The World Cup qualification campaign begins against Hungary in Dublin on September 6th.
Irish Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Hallgrimsson aiming to avoid unwanted record ahead of World Cup campaign
As if there wasn't enough pressure on Heimir Hallgrímsson and his players ahead of the World Cup qualifiers later this year. Failure to make the 2026 tournament - co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico - would represent the longest gap between appearances on either the European or World stage since the country's breakthrough at Euro '88. By 2026, 10 years will have passed since the last successful campaign - and that would equal the distance between Ireland's 2002 World Cup heroics and the disastrous Euro 2012 showing. Progress to the European Championships four years later and progress to the last-16 in France gave rise to optimism that regular qualifications were back on the cards. Then came the play-off collapse against Denmark for the 2018 World Cup, and a poor showing in the Euro 2020 qualifiers and play-off penalty shootout heartache against Slovakia. Stephen Kenny's men were out of contention early in the 2022 World Cup campaign, while Euro 2024 was practically out of the question after the draw landed Ireland in a group with France and the Netherlands. So here we are, a few months out from a rapid-fire three-month series of World Cup qualifiers against Portugal, Hungary and Armenia. Manager Hallgrímsson has just one player in his current squad - Lille hero Robbie Brady - that featured at Euro 2016. While he remains hopeful that Seamus Coleman will be available come September, it's a real knowledge deficit when it comes to successfully navigating a qualification campaign. Giovanni Trapattoni had four veterans of the 2002 World Cup - Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane - when he bridged a 10-year gap to progress to Euro 2012. That experience, says Hallgrímsson, can be key. So expect Brady, and hopefully Coleman, to have big roles on and off the pitch by September's big kick-off. 'I can only say from my experience, once you have smelled it, you know how big it is and you would want to go again and again and again,' said the former Iceland manager. 'They know that and we need them to spread that around the young players, just how massive it is and how fun it is. 'These are the moments you remember when you stop playing. To share that experience is so important. 'I have spoken about Robbie, how good he has been since I came in, in the absence of Seamus, him and Doc (Matt Doherty) have needed to step up in the leadership role.' It's not just that experience that is invaluable. Qualification offers an international manager something that they cannot buy at any other time of their tenure. 'It's not only to qualify, it's the two months of being together that will continue to grow the team,' he said. 'That's not spoken of, but it's one of the reasons why it's always the same teams qualifying. They spend that valuable time together that other teams don't get. 'We only have five camps, and have had the shortest FIFA window, three camps I think were only a week. 'Seven days, seven days, seven days, and if you are developing teams three weeks is not much. 'Most of the training sessions are recovery because they play on the Sunday with the clubs. We cannot do anything Monday. Tuesday is limited load. 'That is the valuable time for national teams, to be in camps in finals, it's something we really need at this moment.' There is something else that Hallgrímsson could do with - a strong pool of players getting regular game-time in Europe's top five leagues. Recently, FAI academy chief Will Clarke made the point during a presentation that a country needed 35 players playing an average of 1,400 minutes of league football a season in a top five league to be successful. During 2024/25, 20 Irish players featured for less than 1,000 minutes each on average. However, Hallgrímsson insisted: 'I think we have the material to qualify, sure. I think I have, again, from experience. 'I have qualified with less talent than we have here. So that's my take on this question. 'I know what you're getting at. Obviously, we would like more players to play at a higher level. 'And I think more players will play at a higher level. They're still not peaking in age and all of that. So I'm pretty confident that we will have more players playing more minutes in the top leagues.'
Irish Times
6 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Séamus Coleman and Sammie Szmodics to miss Ireland friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg
Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has called up Andrew Moran in place of Sammie Szmodics for the international friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg. Ireland face Senegal at the Aviva Stadium on Friday week (June 6th) followed by an end-of-season trip to Luxembourg on June 10th. Séamus Coleman lasted only 18 minutes for Everton in the club's last match at Goodison Park on May 18th and requires a three-week recovery period. Hallgrímsson decided not to replace Coleman in a 23-man squad as Matt Doherty, Jake O'Brien, Festy Ebosele and Dara O'Shea can play right back. On whether the 36-year-old will feature in the World Cup qualification campaign – beginning against Hungary and Armenia in September –Hallgrímsson said: 'That's for Séamus to decide, not me.' READ MORE 'He is a leader in this squad. His experience is one thing, but his quality as a player as well, having played at the highest level for so long. 'Hopefully there will come another time for him. I know he is going to be at Everton next season in more of a leadership role. If he is going to continue playing is his decision.' Séamus Coleman gestures to the crowd as he leaves the pitch after going down injured during Everton's Premier League game against Southampton on May 18th. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Szmodics returned from the ankle injury he sustained in January to finish Ipswich Town's season against West Ham last Sunday but Hallgrímsson wants him to rest and undergo a full preseason to be ready for Hungary's visit to Dublin on September 6th. 'Sammie played 10, 15 minutes in the last game for Ipswich, but his ankle got sore so we decided to call in Andy Moran as a winger-ish-type. He has played in that position before. 'He made a good impression when we played England away [last November], in a difficult situation, and he wasn't involved in the last camp so this is a chance for him to cement himself in the squad. 'His playing time at Stoke got less and less, maybe because he was a loan [from Brighton]. He is really young, he has quality to play in many positions.' Republic of Ireland squad Goalkeepers: Caoimhín Kelleher (Liverpool), Max O'Leary (Bristol City), Josh Keeley (Leyton Orient, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur). Defenders: Matt Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Nathan Collins (Brentford), Dara O'Shea (Ipswich Town), Jake O'Brien (Everton), Andrew Omobamidele (Strasbourg, on loan from Nottingham Forest), Liam Scales (Celtic), Robbie Brady (Preston North End). Midfielders: Jason Knight (Bristol City), Killian Phillips (St Mirren, on loan from Crystal Palace), Will Smallbone (Southampton), Jack Taylor (Ipswich Town), John Joe Patrick Finn (Stade De Reims), Andrew Moran (Stoke City, on loan from Brighton). Forwards: Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Evan Ferguson (West Ham United, on loan from Brighton), Adam Idah (Celtic), Kasey McAteer (Leicester City), Festy Ebosele (Istanbul Basaksehir), Ryan Manning (Southampton). Fixture details Republic of Ireland v Senegal, Aviva Stadium; Friday, June 6th, 7.45pm Luxembourg v Republic of Ireland, Stade De Luxembourg; Tuesday, June 10th, 7.45pm (Irish time)
Irish Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Two out, one in as Heimir Hallgrimsson issues Ireland squad update
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has been forced to make some changes to his squad ahead of next week's return to international action. Seamus Coleman faces three more weeks on the sidelines with the injury he sustained during Everton's final Premier League game at Goodison Park. Coleman made his first start since St Stephen's Day so that he could captain the Toffees against Southampton, but he had to be replaced midway through the first-half. Sammie Szmodics has also been withdrawn. The Ipswich Town forward hasn't recovered from injury in time for this camp. Earning a call-up is Andrew Moran, the Brighton winger who spent last season on-loan at Stoke City. Moran made a total of 39 first-team appearances for Stoke and Hallgrímsson on Thursday morning explained that a lack of options on the wing contributed to the youngster's late call. More to follow…
