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Stephen Kenny praised Brighton coach Graham Potter for allowing Aaron Connolly to return to the Ireland team for Wednesday’s Nations League game against Finland.
Along with Adam Idah, Connolly had initially been ruled out of the game as he was considered a close contact with a member of the Irish camp who had tested positive for Covid-19.
Later, that FAI employee tested negative for the virus. It was announced late on Sunday, following the goalless draw with Wales, that Idah had been called up to Ireland’s senior team. It was until the next morning before Connolly was added back into the mix as well.
“Brighton has been fantastic,” Ireland coach Stephen Kenny told a press conference before the game against Finland.
“Coach Graham Potter is a brilliant footballer. He understands that we have two young players, Aaron Connolly and Jayson Molumby, and he understands the importance of playing for his national team. He has really been brilliant.”
Connolly and Idah were considered close contacts because they had sat too close to the initially positive case during the flight from Ireland to Bratislava last week for the European Championship playoff against Slovakia. The two of them sat in seats that were not assigned to them.
Kenny said that Ireland made changes to their travel plans for the game against Finland.
“There were some differences,” Kenny said.
“It is the director of operations who would mainly plan that, along with senior management. I spoke with him yesterday regarding the flight plans. We changed a few things.
“They are things that everyone is learning. There are no experts at the moment. It is a real [steep] learning curve for people.
“There will be changes in the future.”
Ireland have two games next month in the Nations League against Wales and Bulgaria. Kenny believes that despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19, international soccer will continue to be played.
“It’s hard to believe we lost two players to the playoff at such a late stage to a false positive,” he said when asked if he had faith in the testing process.
“The rules, if I were a Dutch player, I would have had no problem because their rules are 1.5m. If I were an England player, they would have had no problem. Ireland, the HSE rules are stricter than anywhere else. another place in Europe I think.
“We have to comply with the law. That’s what the medical department did.
“There are people who are going through much worse things than us at the moment. The coronavirus has killed thousands of people across Europe and a greater number around the world. It has been bigger than sport.
“For us, it did have an impact. For example, we’ve had eight players lost in the last week due to contract tracing.
“We had eight players, through contact tracing, lost to Wales. We didn’t have David McGoldrick, James McCarthy, Seamus Coleman, Harry Arter, Darragh Lenihan. We had 13 players unavailable for the Wales game. Considering that, I think those are. players did remarkably well. We were unlucky not to really win. “
Photo by Jussi School / Sportsfile
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