The only chance that Harry Arter was actually going to quit playing for Ireland was of Irish fans' own making. On Thursday evening, during Ireland's World Cup qualifier against Georgia, rumours began to spread on social media that Arter was going to switch his international allegiance to England. Those rumours were baseless.
Arter has only played in friendlies for Ireland and so is still eligible to play for the country of his birth. Taking that option had never crossed Arter's mind.
In an interview with the Sunday World's Kevin Palmer, the 26-year-old revealed that he briefly considered why he plays international football when he saw the 'vile' messages which were being sent his way on Twitter by fans who believed the rumours to be true.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was Irish people who had looked at a few newspaper stories and come to the conclusion that I was about to go and play for England. I never said that was happening and my stance on the whole story was that I didn't need to comment on something that was little more than a rumour.
Then I see these Twitter messages and, honestly, it was the only time that I have ever had a thought that maybe I shouldn't play for Ireland. The messages were just vile. I was shocked by what people were sending my way. Honestly, I had to check that someone had not hacked my account and put a message on there to inspire this reaction.
Thoughts that Arter could declare for England first surfaced last week when Jeff Stelling and Paul Merson suggested that Gareth Southgate could call him up to the England. 'Why not?' Merson asked, seemingly unaware that he has three Ireland caps.
Arter added that many of the 'really nasty' messages were deleted soon after confirmation that he was still committed to Ireland arrived on Friday morning.
A lot of the messages have now been deleted, which says all you need to know bout the people that thought it was a good idea to write them in the first place.
As the Irish Independent's Daniel McDonnell said in a excellent piece about the matter, Harry Arter is owed an apology. He's one of the most in form players in the Premier League right now. We're lucky to have him and equally lucky that he has not quit after an embarrassing and unnecessary incident.
Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
