Daryl Horgan: Friendly appearances should have tied Declan Rice to Ireland

Daryl Horgan says he has no issue with Declan Rice having shifted his international allegiances and declaring for England but he does believe that participating in a senior friendly game should be enough to resolve a player's future.

Rice made three appearances for Ireland under Martin O’Neill in 2018, all of them in friendly games, before deciding to opt for England, something he was entitled to do. Horgan, like other members of the current squad, says he completely respects the decision the young West Ham player was entitled to make but the 28-year-old does question whether the option should have been available to him in the first place.

“Look, we all know how good a player he is,” he says. “He’s a very talented guy. But it’s one of them; he should never have been in that position in the first place. There should be stricter rules so that if you play a friendly, then that’s that.

“But the position presented itself, he was born in England, has lived in England all his life. I can understand it. It’s disappointing from our point of view because he’s a very, very good player. But I wouldn’t hold it against him. He’s a young guy and he probably felt the option would never be there so it presented itself and he made the decision. And he’s having a great career… I’m sure he’ll have a great career for the foreseeable future.”

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Horgan's own international prospects have been revived in recent weeks by his former manager at Dundalk, Stephen Kenny. The now Wycombe Wanderers player had earned six caps during 2017 and 2018 but then drifted to the margins of the set up because, he freely admits himself, he wasn't doing well enough to be more central.

A significant part of the problem, he suggests, was mental with an inclination to be overly self-critical weighing him down. He says he addressed the problem after his young son took him to task for it.

“I used to be very, very hard on myself. And you’d see that in my game, there are no two ways about it,” he says. “So, I’ve worked on that, I’ve worked on improving and not beating myself up and it’s definitely helped. But it was very tough because it’s almost ingrained in my head from when I was younger. So, I’m still not perfect by any stretch but there’s definite improvement.”

It was, he suggests, only after his son gave out to him for being so self critical that he realised he had to address the issue. “If someone who is a little five-year-old has more emotional maturity than you,” he says with a laugh, “then you know you’re in trouble.”

A move back to the Championship has, he says, had a positive impact too.

“I’m playing more regularly and in a side that’s become very, very competitive in the championship (after a very poor start, Wycombe have taken seven points from their last four games). “That’s been a big plus, getting in and playing as much as I can. Getting that run of games has helped with everything; fitness, sharpness, the whole lot. And, you know, I was always trying to do the right thing: work as hard as I could and play as well as I can, but I’d say that not being overly critical was the biggest change.”

As for his history with Kenny, he readily accepts that the Ireland manager will only pick the players he has reason to believe will perform for him.

“In terms of international football,” he says, “I was probably thinking that I’d be very, very lucky to get an opportunity to get back in but the opportunity presented itself and thankfully I’ve done enough in the manager’s eyes to stay in for another trip, so for me it’s good to be back in this week and I’ll obviously be trying to do as well as I can in training, and thinking that hopefully there’s an opportunity to play and then go from there.

“It [having worked with Kenny before] is good for me because I know what he’s about, what he likes, the way he is and the way he wants football to be played but for him, he’s just looking for the best players that are available to him.

“If I wasn’t playing well he was never going to pick me because he’s got quite a lot of depth of talent in that position, there are a lot of good players around the squad. First and foremost, I’ve to play well to even get close to it but the fact that we’ve worked together before… I’m sure it can’t hurt.”