Although Damien Duff and Kevin Doyle were drafted into RTÉ this evening to discuss a Champions League qualifier between Ajax and Dynamo Kiev, Declan Rice quickly became the topic of discussion.
After appearing set to commit his allegiance to Republic of Ireland despite being London-born, the West Ham United man is now less certain amid reports that England may be interested in his services.
Upset that this situation has occurred, Duff did admit that because of a dearth of talent, Ireland could scarcely afford to tell Rice 'to do one,' and, if he did decide to to return to the Irish fold, there is little reason to believe Martin O'Neill could decide against using him.
Taking a deeper dive into the question of allegiance, Duff conceded that if Rice feels a greater affinity with England than Ireland, there is little that can be done.
However, looking back to his own career with Ireland, the former Chelsea winger made an interesting revelation.
I'm bitterly disappointed, and I won't name any names here, but I used to play with a player, 40, 50 caps he was with me. I remember we all caught him rapid singing the English national anthem.
Did we have a problem with it? Ya, but you wouldn't change it because he brought a lot to the Irish team for five, six, seven years. You won't get the name out of me, but he obviously wanted to play for England, but he played for Ireland and brought an awful lot of happiness to our country.
Of the opinion that a return to Ireland could happen pretty seamlessly given the kind of performances Rice would inevitably bring, Damien Duff nevertheless is quite disheartened by the whole idea.
