Roy Hodgson named his squad for the June 7 friendly against the Republic of Ireland today and while there was never any real chance of a surprise Jack Grealish call-up, the England boss couldn’t avoid questions about the young winger.
All the usual suspects – Wayne Rooney, Jordan Henderson, Gary Cahill, etc – were named in the 24-man squad for the game at the Aviva Stadium along with fresh call-ups Charlie Austin, Jamie Vardy and Tom Heaton.
But it was the subject of Aston Villa’s Grealish who most Irish fans would have been more interested in.
The 19-year-old recently turned down an invitation from Martin O’Neill to feature in his squad for Ireland’s upcoming Euro 2016 clash with Scotland.
And England manager Hodgson was met with questions in his press conference today about what he was doing in terms of keeping tabs on Grealish.
“Obviously he’s a very talented player,” he said. “He’s been on the radar of our younger teams, the U20s and U21, for some time and I’ve been aware of him.”
Hodgson acknowledged the dilemma facing the Solihull-born player insofar as he’s eligible to play for both England and Ireland.
“He could play for either country but which one’s it going to be?” he asked.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s got to be Jack Grealish’s decision and his alone and we must respect that decision and I don’t think that we should be attempting to put undue influence (on him)… I’ll leave it to him but if he decides it’s us (he wishes to declare for) then we’ll be very happy.”
