{"id":643764,"date":"2026-10-03T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643764\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:38:10","slug":"ireland-captain-dara-oshea-is-doubt-for-israel-match-as-partner-is-giving-birth-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643764\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland captain Dara O\u2019Shea is doubt for Israel match as partner is giving birth \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland captain Dara O\u2019Shea<\/a> is a doubt for tomorrow\u2019s Uefa Nations League game with Israel<\/a>, as his partner is giving birth. The Irish squad have gathered in Backa Topola, Serbia, for the second fixture against Israel, but head coach Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> confirmed their captain is not among the squad.<\/p>\n

Hallgr\u00edmsson has not definitively ruled O\u2019Shea out of contention of tomorrow\u2019s game, as the captain has expressed a desire to link up with the squad after the baby arrives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that I\u2019m going to have the baby and come back, but obviously we have priorities in life and this is the one that has the highest priority,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cIt\u2019s your family, it\u2019s a new life coming and hopefully that will be a good centre-back for Ireland in 16 years, whether for the women\u2019s or the men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just taken that situation hour by hour, but his intention is to come and be with us in the game. But like I said, we know priorities in life, and this is the biggest one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland are also without right wing-back James Abankwah for the game through suspension. Abankwah has, however, chosen to travel with the squad, and he took part in the prematch training session at the TSC Arena. <\/p>\n

The game will conclude a turbulent international window for Ireland, with Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s prematch press conference shut down prematurely<\/a> by the FAI press officer after an Israeli journalist made an allegation against the Irish players while questioning Hallgr\u00edmsson.<\/p>\n

Asked to reflect on the window as a whole, Hallgr\u00edmsson said the ultimate ambition is to emerge with a sense of unity and team spirit unscathed. <\/p>\n

\u201cSurviving this camp, coming out of it together as one, would be a massive win for me,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cThat is coming from my heart. I think all the challenges that this team has gone through, all the criticism, I think just surviving as a group after this game, that would be a big win for me and for this group, for the association. It would be a big, big win if we go through this undamaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen if we go [from the perspective of] the coach that is judged on winning or losing games, obviously by having another three points, seven points, would be more than I could probably have asked for before the camp, knowing what was to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know when you go into an environment like this how players will react, but that has been the most pleasing thing for me, is to see their togetherness and how they stand up for each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this, I\u2019ve said it so many times, I think this bond of brothers will be stronger than ever. All the obstacles that this group will face in the future will be lesser than it actually is. It was just funny mentioning Dara O\u2019Shea, our captain, comes to you just before a game and said, \u2018My wife is going into labour,\u2019 and it just didn\u2019t seem like a problem. Yes, okay, you fly straight after the game, and it was solved in five minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just easy. Normally you would have been stressed and kind of anxious, but for us it was just a simple problem. This is a situation, we deal with it this way, and we move on. So I think when we look back, [we will] say, this was the moment that we grew the most. We stepped up as persons, as leaders, supporting each other, and the main thing, we stuck together, and just the power of togetherness is something that is stronger than an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland captain Dara O\u2019Shea is a doubt for tomorrow\u2019s Uefa Nations League game with Israel, as his partner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86463,4700,61,60,266856,43,1842],"class_list":["post-643764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dara-o-shea","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}