LONDON • Gareth Southgate has backed midfielders Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, and defender Michael Keane to have successful England careers after switching their allegiance from Ireland.
The trio were all born in England but first played for Ireland in some capacity on account of their Irish ancestry.
West Ham’s Rice earned three caps for Ireland in friendlies, while Grealish of Aston Villa and Everton’s Keane both played for Ireland’s youth teams before committing their future to England.
The trio will now prepare to face Ireland for the first time since their switch after being named in England’s squad for the Wembley friendly on Thursday, and the Three Lions manager has no doubts that they made the right decision.
“I think the three boys we have with us, they look as if they can have good international careers and we’re just focusing on that part of it, really,” he told the British media ahead of the game.
“We’ve got a lot of these situations. We played Wales last month and they had a couple of players who were with us as youngsters: Tyler Roberts and Ethan Ampadu. We didn’t want to lose them.
“I think everybody is facing these challenges with dual nationality players.
“We’ve always got to get the balance right of not capping them too early and just to stop them going somewhere else.”
Southgate, however, will not be able to call on Trent Alexander-Arnold after the defender suffered a calf injury late on during Liverpool’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp said: “He will be out of England. Scan tomorrow and then we will see.”
After Ireland, England travel to top-ranked Belgium for their Uefa Nations League A Group 2 clash on Sunday before hosting Iceland on Nov 18 to conclude the round.
REUTERS