Seamus remains the ‘man
STEPHEN Kenny insists that Seamus Coleman can’t be written off after one bad summer performance.
Kenny is aware of the criticism the Ireland captain endured after the 1-0 Nations League defeat in Armenia last June.
But he believes it is wrong to just single out Coleman (33) — who, the Ireland boss says, should not have played due to injury.
“Obviously the problem for Seamus is the recurring hamstring thing that he had,” Kenny commented.
“He was coming back too early and putting his body on the line for his club and having to do that and breaking down, all that kind of stuff.
“He’s happy that he’s pain-free now but he didn’t have proper pre-season matches because he had a procedure, an operation.
“If everyone judges him on Armenia, people are saying, ‘Oh, he’s finished’.
“But we all learned a lot of lessons in that because he probably shouldn’t have played in that game.
“But the way he thinks is, ‘I can’t play for Everton and not play for Ireland because Ireland is the most important to me, so if I play for Everton I have to play for Ireland’. Those are his values.”
Season
Coleman put his body on the line to help extricate Everton from relegation trouble last season but has been out of favour this term.
His only appearance this campaign was in the EFL Cup victory over Fleetwood last month.
“He’s pain-free now so we have to see,” stressed Kenny.
“They’ve changed between a back three and a back four at Everton, they’ve a lot of centre-backs that can play on the right of a back three, which they’ve sort of focused on towards the end of last season.
“They’ve obviously signed the Scottish right-back Nathan Patterson, who is playing at the moment, so we’ll have to wait and see.”