After Ireland departed Euro 2012 last week thoughts inevitably turned to which Irish players would quit international football. Here’s the odds on the likely retirees.
While there has been much talk about what new faces could come in to Giovanni Trapattoni’s team, and how he might use them, the make up of the next Irish team we see could be very different.
With a host of players on the wrong side of 30, and after the disappointment of the trip to Poland, it is now expected that some, but hopefully not all, of Ireland’s longest servants will step down from international football.
During the tournament Shay Given spoke about ‘stepping aside’ while Richard Dunne admitted to being ‘heartbroken’ just before the Italy game. Damien Duff was another veteran who said he would need a few weeks to make a decision, fuelling speculation his Ireland career would end at 100 caps.
And according to the good people at Paddy Power the Fulham man is the favourite to call it quits, at odds of 1/4.
Another odds-on shot is Given, with the Donegal man tipped to hang up his gloves at odds of 2/7. We think Given has some life left in him yet but the oddsmakers reckon he’s done.
Despite reports that Richard Dunne had told Trap he would stick around for the World Cup qualifiers, the Aston Villa man is a skimpy 6/4 to retire before Ireland’s Road to Rio starts against Kazakhstan on September 7.
From there the odds start to lengthen. Robbie Keane seems happy to continue but you can back him to quit at 5/2 while Darron Gibson, at odds of 25/1 may not be a bad bet considering this story yesterday.
Meanwhile John O’Shea, who has been injury prone of late, can be had at 10s, which might be worth a bob or two.
You can access the full list here and if you fancy a punt on England’s quitters then their top man to go is Rio Ferdinand at 7/4.
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