NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Sport > Boost for Trapattoni as Richard Dunne commits to World Cup campaign

Boost for Trapattoni as Richard Dunne commits to World Cup campaign

Aston Villa defender to play on for another two years

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, August 26, 2012, 10:51 AM

Updated Sunday, August 26, 2012, 10:51 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

3 Comments

Richard Dunne

Photo by Google Images

Ireland defender Richard Dunne is to backbone the World Cup qualification bid – after answering Giovanni Trapattoni’s SOS.

Trap met the Aston Villa star in England on Saturday in a bid to persuade him not to quit international football.

The big Dubliner is vital to the team’s World Cup campaign after the retirement of goalkeeper Shay Given and winger Damien Duff.

Trap feared that Dunne would follow suit after the player said his future was unsure after the Euro 2012 disappointment in Poland.

But the talks in Birmingham were described as positive with Dunne keen to carry on for at least another two years.

An FAI statement confirmed: “Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli held a positive meeting with Richard Dunne.

“Richard reconfirmed that he will be available again for international duty once he makes a full recovery.”

Dunne will miss the opening World Cup game in Kazakhstan early next month as he recovers from a groin injury.

But the 33-year-old expects to be fit again in time for the visit of Germany to Dublin in October.

Nster.com

E-mail

3 Comments

See all comments

cillowen | Aug 27, 2012, 05:06 PM EDT

dunne looks like an old salt who sucks the bottle and smokes fhags.

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Aug 27, 2012, 01:15 PM EDT

PhutiePhan: You're pretty much on the money. And remember that this guy Trap is pulling 2 million a year US$. That's maybe fifty grand A WEEK. As far as I'm concerned, he's a charlatan. Only the Irish would be fooled by him. He threatened to go elsewhere. Where? Who else but the Irish would pay him 2 million a year? Who else but the dopey Irish would have given him a contract BEFORE his team performed so deplorably in the European Cup?

Report abuse

PhlutiePhan | Aug 27, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT

Dunnie is the "heart and soul" of a defensive minded strategy that is outdated. The squad just cannot score under Trappatoni. The Italian federation saw reality and let Trap go. Italia was blown out by Espana in the Euro final but they still came in second. I wonder how that worked out for the "green lads"? The Irish were the oldest squad at the Euros and looked it. They have no scorer. They have a great playmaker in Robbie Boy. However, isn't it obvious that you can't win if you can't score? Isn't it just as obvious that nil-nil and "pray for rain" just isn't a win?

Report abuse