International career all but over for Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney

Unlikely: Martin O'Neill admits door is closing on Palace defender
Giuseppe Muro19 August 2015

Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney’s international career is all but over after Martin O’Neill confirmed he is unlikely to play for the Republic of Ireland again.

Delaney, 34, has not featured for Ireland since pulling out of O’Neill’s squad for friendlies against Costa Rica and Portugal in the United States last summer.

Delaney is a regular for Palace but O’Neill appears to have closed the door on a return to international football.

“I do not think that Damien, from his own viewpoint, would definitely come back to play if he was not guaranteed playing in the side [and] I cannot guarantee anybody a place in the side,” he said. “I do not think at his age if he wants to be running as just being part of this squad. I cannot guarantee that to almost all the team.”

Meanwhile, Australia coach Ange Postecoglou has backed Mile Jedinak to win back his place in Alan Pardew’s side. Jedinak has been on the bench for the first two games of the season but Postecoglou said: “I am sure he would prefer to be playing but I have no doubt he will win that battle. He is just that kind of guy.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in