Martin O'Neill today announced his provisional squad for the qualifying clash with Austria in Vienna on November 12th, and the headline takeaway is the inclusion of Dundalk's Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle. Both could well move on from the domestic league soon, but their international recognition while still playing in the League of Ireland bucks a trend: traditionally Irish players had to move cross-channel to earn their international call-up.
One man who falls into the latter is James McClean, who is assured of his matchday inclusion and, increasingly is an automatic starter under Martin O'Neill.
On this week's football podcast, we spoke to Eamon Zayed on a range of topics, including his remarkable stint in Iran, and you can listen to it below.
During the course of our chat with Zayed, we asked him to name the two best players he has trained with. One of the names he mentioned was McClean, whom he spent time with at Derry City.
His response gave an insight into the exceptional level of work that McClean has put in to become a regular at both Premier League and international level.
Maybe not the most talented player - he had talent, but maybe not the most talented I've played with - but his work ethic was phenomenal, and his will to succeed, I believe, drove him to achieve what he has done - and that's James McClean.
Any player who wants to work so, so hard, and make it - that's him. He worked his balls off, day in, day out. Staying back after training, he used to jog to training, and back home very day, to keep up his fitness. He just really, really wanted it.
Yeah, he had talent, but he worked his balls off to get where he wanted to get - and that's playing for Ireland and in England.
So he's definitely one that made an impression on me.
Fair play.
Zayed's second answer was interesting too, although wildly different: El-Hadji Diouf.
Listen to the full show below, or by subscribing on iTunes here.
