Ireland manager Martin O'Neill named his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers this afternoon.
One emerging player who didn't make the cut was West Ham's Declan Rice, who came on as a substitute against Manchester United on Sunday on the opening weekend of the 2017-18 Premier League season.
Rice made his Hammers senior debut towards the end of last season and was rewarded with a call up to Ireland's squad for end of season friendlies against Mexico and Uruguay.
While West Ham went down 4-0 in our live game on Off The Ball, the performance of Rice upon his introduction caught the eye of our own Kevin Kilbane and Nathan Murphy.
Kevin said: "We don't want to go over the top, do we, because we've seen so many players over the years who have come and been around the Irish international setup and it hasn't quite worked for them. Now, there's a number of reasons for that. But the one thing he did when he came on - you said there, 'give me the ball' - it was only his second Premier League game and he only made his debut last game of [last] season, it was much influence he had on the West Ham players in general. They wanted to give him the ball. They had full confidence in him, this kid coming into the game was prepared to take the ball in tight areas, when he's got people up behind him and right up against him tightly marking him - he was prepared to have a huge influence."
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