DURING HIS PRE-GAME press conference, Stephen Kenny was tossed Jose Mourinho’s sub-tweet of the latest Covid news from the FAI. 

Shortly after the FAI announced Spurs’ Matt Doherty had tested positive for Covid-19, Jose uploaded an Instagram post dripping with sarcasm, “amazing week of football. Great emotions in the national team matches, superb friendlies and total safety.”

Kenny was asked if he had sympathy for the club managers, but he instead focused on the players. 

“First and foremost, I’m sympathetic towards the players themselves because it’s quite traumatic for a player to get coronavirus in a situation like that, and the effect on their families. I think that’s lost sometimes.”

Kenny’s squad has been decimated by injury and Covid issues, and he only has half of the 26-man squad originally selected for tomorrow night’s Nations League game with Bulgaria.

Callum Robinson, Alan Browne, and James McClean have also tested positive for the virus in this camp, which follows two positive tests among the players during last month’s camp. 

Shortly after the call with Kenny concluded, Conor Hourihane gave a frank insight into the mindset of a player asked to play games and cross borders in a pandemic. 

“It hasn’t been easy. It’s been a tough challenge for everyone, with a pandemic out there. Lads are worried for loved ones at home. ‘Am I taking this home to people?’ People are dying, it’s terrible. There are a huge amount of factors going on. Maybe we can give a lift to everyone by getting a result on Wednesday.”

Stephen Kenny speaks with his much-changed squad ahead of tomorrow's meeting with Bulgaria. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Hourihane admitted he doubted last month whether this international window would actually go ahead, and spoke of the atmosphere in the camp, with players on edge waiting for Covid test results while late additions to the squad are forced to isolate separately until they clear a test.

“Football, GAA, life: it is just not the same at the minute”, said Hourihane. “It’s such a shame.. We have to make do as best we can. The emotion, intensity, passion – all of those words that spring to mind with fans in the stadiums – they just aren’t there at the minute. We are all hoping, in the near future, things will go back to some kind of normality.

“You want the negative result back, you want that text from the doctor. But it is in the back of everyone’s mind when someone gets a positive test early on in the trip, you are fully aware how the virus spreads. It hasn’t been an easy camp again, but we have to make do with everyone that’s here.”

Most media comment – this site included – has focused on Ireland’s run of poor results and barren goalscoring run along with the disruption to Kenny’s squad, perhaps without enough focus on the abnormal circumstances the players have been asked to work in. 

“We’re all worried about results, performances and goals and whatever – and yes that’s what we all want – but, listen, I’ve had a family issue with Covid, somebody unfortunately passing away”, revealed Hourihane.

“It’s not an easy time for people. People won’t know what’s going on in people’s lives. We’re all wanting results and to win games but sometimes there’s bigger things out there in life. This pandemic is definitely bigger than a couple of goals and a couple of results.

“We all try to stick to the protocols. Lads are normal human beings outside football.

Everyone sees lads playing on the pitch and judging their performances and how they’re getting on, but we’re all normal, just like yourselves. It has impacted myself and I know it has impacted others. Some people have elderly family members that they haven’t seen for months and months and months. We’re the same as anybody else but we’re the ones who have to go out and try to put a show on for a you guys to write about or to put a smile on people’s faces so they can cheer or shout at home.”

The spate of cases in the Irish camp has brought scrutiny on the FAI’s safety protocols, but Hourihane says he feels safe within the camp. 

“I do feel safe.  The tests are a big part of that. Not taking it home is hugely important to myself, with what has happened in the last few months in my family. My partner is pregnant as well, so I don’t want to be taking anything back to her. There are a lot of factors. But once I don’t get it and don’t take it home, that’s all the matters at the end of the day. Once everyone is safe around me, that’s all that matters.” 

The situation is further complicated by the mentality of an elite athlete eager both to play for his country and to retain his place, which Hourihane teased out when asked if he had considered whether he considered declining a call-up. 

“Never, really. I probably let you in on a bit of personal information, I suppose, but I’m just talking to you as a normal lad from Cork. I’m not very robotic when I come to these interviews, I try to talk normally to you.

“I would never have pulled out. I suppose that’s a little bit of a selfishness that I have as an athlete.

“Hopefully I won’t bring anything home and we do get tested regularly, which is important, but you have to be a little bit selfish in this game and I was never going to pull out. I love playing for Ireland. It’s a very short career, it flashes by you in the blink of an eye, so any call-up I get, I’ll always be here.” 

At which point it’s worth asking: should we be asking him to be here? 

Should these games have been played at all?