NO ARM DONE..

Kenny excuses skipper Seamus’ performance in shock June loss

STEPHEN KENNY insists that Seamus Coleman cannot be written off after one bad summer performance.

Kenny is aware of the criticism the Ireland captain endured after June’s 1-0 Nations League defeat in Armenia but believes it is wrong to single out one man.

“Obviously the problem for Seamus is the recurring hamstring thing that he had,” Kenny (inset) said. “He was coming back too early and putting his body on the line for his club. He’s happy he’s pain free now but he didn’t have proper pre-season matches because he had a procedure, an operation.

“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.

“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.”

Kenny is fulsome in his praise of the 33-year-old’s display in the scoreless World Cup qualifying draw with Portugal in Dublin last November. “I thought he had a really good performance,” he said. “We played with a back three and we said, ‘Right, let’s get at them here, let’s press them high, get after them’.

“There were a lot of one on ones and in the first 10 minutes they got a hold of it and we were trying to get a foothold in the game, I thought Seamus did very well in that period.

“He did a lot of very good work in that game particularly but that’s the thing with international football, you think it was last week. It’s only seven matches ago for me but it’s last November.”

Coleman put his body on the line to help extricate Everton from relegation trouble last season but has been out of favour this season. His only appearance to date this term was in the narrow 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.

“Seamus knows he needs to play football but it can change with one injury and he can get back in the team, have a sustained run.”