Brian Kerr fears ‘incident’ may have changed Rice’s tune

Brian Kerr feels there's something missing here.

Declan Rice played three games for the Republic of Ireland senior team in the last year. He's played countless underage games on Republic of Ireland teams in the last few years. The 19-year-old London born defender seemed so at home in the Ireland camp. He kissed the badge, he talked up Amhrán Na bhFiann, he once played an under-21 game for Ireland only a few days after he'd played a senior one. He was saying all the right things, he was doing all the right things and he seemed to be loving life in green. Then bam, out of nowhere and just like that, Martin O'Neill drops a bomb on Monday that Declan Rice isn't sure if he wants to play for Ireland or England yet. Brian Kerr knows that Declan Rice is only 19-years of age. He knows that it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary if his mind changed just like that but he also knows the calibre of Declan Rice as a player and as a man. He's seen enough of him and he's heard enough about him to think that his convictions wouldn't have changed overnight and for no apparent reason other than the reasons that were already there. Brian Kerr feels there's something missing here. The former Republic of Ireland manager was speaking to Tommy Martin on TV3 on Tuesday evening and it's clear that he's not buying Martin O'Neill's explanation about Rice's absence from the Ireland squad.

"I don't accept what he said that there was a new manager at the club and that this is about getting his place back, I was at the game at the weekend and he was warming up extensively, so I don't think that's an issue at all...anyway, if you weren't playing with the club, it should mean he's more committed to playing with Ireland," began the 65-year-old. "I think something has changed dramatically since all of those lovely statements and the games he played. He played an international match in Turkey, then came back and played an under-21 match and he was the best player, he celebrated with everyone at the end of the match."

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"All those things make me think something has changed dramatically. I don't believe it was the influence of the agents, I don't believe that Gareth Southgate, impressive and all as England were at the World Cup - that that has changed anything," continued the Drimnagh native.

Kerr is worried that something may have happened during Ireland training or during an Ireland camp that soured Rice's opinion on representing this country.

"I hope it wasn't something that happened when he was in the team, I hope that there wasn't some incident. Martin recently confirmed that there were altercations between one of the staff, with Roy Keane...

He wonders why O'Neill hadn't given these concerns daylight last week when he was interviewed on a number of occasions.

"Something has happened in the last few days...Martin didn't reference this the week before in Cork, there was no mention of it then... "I hope there wasn't any incident or remarks made to Declan Rice that affected his view of the Irish set-up...He did seem so happy in the Ireland camp before that.