Lions circle for Hammers star

DECLAN RICE won’t be badgered into playing for Ireland but Martin O’neill is confident he will snub any interest from England.

The rising West Ham star, 19, is London-born but has played all his underage football with the Boys in Green and is eager to kick on at senior level.

But England boss Gareth Southgate confirmed at the UEFA Nations League draw in Switzerland in January that he too is sweet on the defender who can also play midfield.

Rice was yesterday named in O’neill’s 30-man provisional squad for the

March 23 training camp and friendly in Turkey.

“If England come calling, I can understand it and that’s the case until someone actually says, ‘this is it’,” said

O’neill. “But I don’t want to be coercing players into making a decision now that they might regret.

“He’s going to play with us, we brought him in last year down in Fota Island for a number of days but he has got choices to make. We’d love to have him and I’d hope he would want to do that in return, but the decision will be his and his alone.”

Rice will be tied to Ireland if he plays in the Nations League in September as those games are competitive internationals.

O’neill won’t force the issue if for some reason the player is stalling like Jack Grealish (below).

“It’s a balancing act – you want to do as much as you possibly can to encourage the player to come,” he said. “You want to try and convince that he’ll have a better chance playing for you, but you don’t want to go too far in the other direction.”

While Rice has trained with the senior squad, yesterday was his first time being named in a provisional squad.

Sheffield United left-back Enda Stevens, Manchester United goalkeeper Kieran O’hara and Blackburn Rovers pair Darragh Lenihan and Derrick Williams also got first calls. Skipper Seamus Coleman returns from injury.

O’neill will travel with 25 players, so five of the squad will be sweating before he wields the axe.