There was no mention of his time with Ireland during the interview.
In a wide-ranging interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap, Declan Rice spoke about his career to date.
The West Ham United midfielder detailed his career to date, from being let go by Chelsea as a teenager to making his Premier League debut and his disappointment of losing the Euro 2020 final to Italy.
However, Rice did not mention, nor was he asked about, the elephant in the room – his Republic of Ireland appearances and his time with Ireland’s underage team.
Declan Rice reflects on Euro 2020 final, but does not mention Ireland career.
Before switching allegiance to England, the country of his birth, Rice was an Ireland international. He played three times for the Boys in Green in 2018, and won the man of the match in each game.
Rice, however, switched allegiance to England in early 2019 and has gone on to play 27 times for Gareth Southgate’s team. Yet, despite experiencing such an eventful and controversial incident in his career, there was no mention of it in the lengthy interview with Neville.
Most of the England talk between Rice and Neville centred around the Three Lions losing the Euro 2020 final on penalties to England at Wembley. The midfielder, 23, admitted that the team got their tactics wrong in the game and that he and his teammates approached the match wrong.
“As players, we could have taken a bit more responsibility and had the ball a little bit more,” he said on the Overlap.
“We went 1-0 up and started so well. We were on the front foot, everyone was really buzzing for it. We were aggressive, tackles were going in strong, winning the headers, winning the second ball.”
Rice then described how the game unfolded before their eyes and admitted that allowing Italy to have more possession was one of their downfalls in their defeat.
“I remember in the last ten minutes of the first half we were dropping back a bit and we were pressured. Their midfield was known through the whole tournament of having loads of the ball and for 35 minutes they couldn’t get into the rhythm of passing the ball.”
“The space opened up and their players were starting to get on the ball to make things happen. Their tails were up and ours were a little bit shocked. From there, it’s always tough to get back into it (after conceding).”
“It’s where you need to go again and we didn’t really do that, which was gutting because of the players we had on the pitch and on the bench. It’s a shame we couldn’t nick another goal or keep more control of the ball.”
It is not clear if Neville chose not to ask about Rice’s Ireland career, or Rice did not want to speak about it. But by not addressing it in the interview, it’s fair to say that Rice has drawn a line under his time with Ireland and is unlikely to tackle the subject again any time soon.
You can watch the full interview below.
