O'Shea remains coy on becoming Ireland manager full-time
Sport

O'Shea remains coy on becoming Ireland manager full-time

Interim Ireland boss John O'Shea has remained tight-lipped over the idea of him becoming the next full-time Ireland boss.

Last weekend, Ireland played out a 0-0 draw with Belgium in the Aviva Stadium, and for many, it was a satisfactory performance in O'Shea's first-ever game on the touchline.

This coming Tuesday, Ireland plays Switzerland in the final game of O'Shea's brief reign, and fans of the national team will be looking for a similar performance in Dublin.

After this, Ireland is expected to hire a permanent Irish boss after a long-drawn-out saga, and there is growing chatter that the man to replace Stephen Kenny could, in fact, be O'Shea.

The speculation is sure to grow in the coming days, but for O'Shea, his only focus is on the tie against Switzerland tomorrow.

"My remit was to focus on these two games," said O’Shea on Monday.

"If my remit beforehand was, "John, you're the full-time new manager,"  it might have been a different situation. The focus for me was, "These two games, John, look after these games and see what happens then."

When asked and pushed about what his next move would be, the temporary Ireland boss gave nothing away about being the next Ireland boss.

"Let's wait and see. Hopefully, there will be a few things happening," he added. “But hopefully, I will be going back for Easter holidays with my kids, so we'll do something with them, and then get back into the swing of things with them and hopefully go to watch games and have a few conversations here and there.”

On the playing side, O'Shea has claimed that Ireland has no new injury concerns ahead of their game against Switzerland, just "bumps and bruises." Joe Hodge and Andy Moran have joined the senior squad from the Irish U-21's.

"It's pretty much a clean bill of health for everyone," said O’Shea. "A few lads are a little bit leggy, have a few bumps, and have tight muscle areas and will need a little bit of extra attention in training today.

"Andy Moran and Joe Hodge joined in a little bit of training yesterday and were very good, so all in a good spot, really. Like all the lads training today, they’ll have a very good opportunity of making their debuts, but we’ll be assessing that after training.

"And making sure all the bodies, those with a bit of tightness, come through the training, and we’ll see what happens with the selection after that."

Ireland vs. Switzerland will take place on March 26 at 7.45.