Declan Rice and Jack Grealish ‘were never going to play for the Republic of Ireland’, says Martin O’Neill, who responds to disgruntled fan by insisting both players only saw a future with England

Former Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill would never have faced Declan Rice or Jack Grealish in competitive matches.

O’Neill coached England’s two current World Cup players during his tenure as national manager before losing them both to Gareth Southgate.

This is despite the English-born duo both playing for the Irish youth teams, while Rice even made three senior appearances in friendlies.

FIFA rules at the time stated that players could change their international allegiance after playing three or fewer non-competitive matches, which proved to be the case when Rice became an England regular.

O’Neill joined White and Jordan on talkSPORT to discuss a number of topics, and a disgruntled Irish listener was disappointed he failed to keep Rice and Grealish on, but as he explained it didn’t was ever planned despite the best efforts of Roy Keane. !

He explained: “First of all you can’t force players to become international players, he’s had three friendlies at senior level, he’s been great in games, it’s as simple as that: Declan Rice wanted to play for England.

“He was born in England, it’s really that simple, you can’t just bring them into an international game, a competitive game, or the minute they play a competitive game for the country they’re announcing that they will play their.

“It was never going to be, you can’t trick people into playing these games, you can’t force them to.

“Jack Grealish was exactly the same, he was in my early days of international management, I went to see Jack Grealish, I went to see his father, Jack Grealish was born in England and Jack Grealish played minor football for the Republic of Ireland, which he loved to do.

“But then when you have to make a decision, that decision was made by Jack Grealish and his dad, his dad is also English too, you can also go back to the legacy, but that’s what they wanted to do, and I’m not gonna disown them.

Before FIFA modernized its national eligibility rules in 2020, if Rice or Grealish played a single competitive minute for the Ireland senior team, they could no longer play for England.

Due to the quality of superstars at West Ham and Manchester City, some Irish fans may feel a bit embarrassed that O’Neill failed to bring either player on. the field in a competitive matchup, but he revealed that was never an option.

“I never would have done it, I couldn’t do that, it would be a bad start,” he said. “And second, it’s not like they don’t know the rules.

“The players know the rules and the players’ fathers know the rules, it couldn’t be simpler then this idea of ​​criticizing for not constraining two players who are now playing for England.

“I probably wouldn’t have done it, and Declan Rice would have been aware of it, so he wouldn’t have done it.

“If Gareth Southgate had said ‘listen son, you have no prayers to come in on this side for the next five years’, there might have been a conversation, but there wasn’t.”