Wes Hoolahan has announced his retirement from international football.
The 35-year-old told Martin O'Neill last week. "He didn’t try and talk me around, he knew my mind was made up and it was time to go," Hoolahan told The Herald.
He retires from Ireland duty having won 43 caps. The last of those came in the 5-1 World Cup qualifier defeat to Denmark at the Aviva back in November.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, to retire, but I feel it’s one I had to make and this is the right time to do it.
It’s a mixture of things that led me to make this decision but mainly age, I will be 36 soon, I’ll be 38 when the next Euros come around, so it’s time to move aside.
I had two great campaigns with Ireland and the Euros in France was an amazing experience.
Hoolahan made his international debut aged 26 under Giovanni Trapattoni when he came on as a second half substitute in a 2008 friendly against Colombia at Craven Cottage. He was playing for Blackpool at the time.
The Dubliner's first Ireland goal came five years after his first cap in February 2013 against Poland. He scored two more international goals, the most notable of which was Ireland's opening score of Euro 2016 against Sweden.
Though Trappatoni gave him his debut, he was largely exiled with the Italian as manager. It was not until the arrival of Martin O'Neill as manager that his career began to flourish.
Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
