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Gareth Southgate believes Jack Grealish and Declan Rice will have successful careers with England as the two prepare to face the Republic of Ireland for the first time since they switched sides.
After New Zealand pulled out of a friendly on Thursday due to travel complications in the form of coronavirus, Ireland will instead line up at Wembley before the Nations League group stage concludes.
Aston Villa skipper Grealish played for Ireland all the way to the under-21 level and turned down a senior call-up in 2015, before committing to England that same year and finally making his senior bow in September 2020.
Rice represented Ireland’s senior team on three occasions, but those appearances came in friendlies, allowing the West Ham midfielder to come out for the Three Lions in February 2019 and win 11 appearances.
“As for Declan, well, we have the same situation with Jack and the same situation with Michael Keane (who represented Ireland at a youth level), really, so we’re going to have to play someone!” England chief Southgate said.
“But I can’t think about it too much. We are obviously playing in an empty stadium which makes things a bit different, but I understand the interest in these players.
“We have a lot of these situations. We played in 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 everyone is facing these challenges with dual nationality players and we always have to find the right balance not to restrict them too soon, just to stop them from going somewhere else – we want to be honest with them so they can have a career.
“But I think the three guys we have with us, it looks like they can have good international careers with us and we’re just focusing on that part, really.”
Former head Roy Hodgson and former Football Association technical director Dan Ashworth were instrumental in persuading Grealish to join England, while Southgate played an important role in bringing Rice.
The Three Lions boss says it would be “arrogant” to assume that players would pick them at a time when so many within the system may represent one or more other countries.
Gareth Southgate played a role in persuading Declan Rice to play for England
Valencia teenager Yunus Musah is a current example, with the talented 17-year-old preparing to join the US senior squad for the next friendlies having been with England’s U19 squad just last.
month.
“I know John (McDermott, assistant technical director of the FA) has spoken to the family and they know where we are,” Southgate said.
“But we also want to get that balance right by not just pushing it up in the age group faster than we think is right because we also have other guys in the system and we don’t want to promise things we can fulfill.
“It seems that this time he will meet America and experience it. That does not preclude him from being with us to move forward.
“So, we just have to make sure the boy and the family know that we think he is a good player, that he is on a good trajectory.
“We are monitoring him. He has been with us for the past couple of months and we would love his future to be with us.”
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