The Republic of Ireland squad trained for the first time today ahead of their upcoming Euro2016 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Germany.
Martin O’Neill effectively ruled Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy out of both games two days after Everton manager Roberto Martinez had.
With Coleman out, 20 year old Brian Lenihan has been called up to the squad. The Cork native only recently joined Hull from Cork City but he’s yet to feature for the Premier League side.
However all the talk at the team’s training base in Dublin was about another Cork man. It was a first chance for the media to speak to Martin O’Neill since extracts of Roy Keane’s new book appeared in the newspapers.
Keane’s book will officially go on sale on Thursday but some copies went on sale in Manchester on Monday. Surely not the best preparation for two qualifiers but O’Neill says the book launch won't be a distraction:
