Leeds United’s Eunan O’Kane is ready to put the club’s play-off campaign ahead of his international hopes.
Leeds’ Eunan O’Kane in action with Nottingham Forest’s Michael Mancienne
Leeds United midfielder Eunan O’Kane has told the Irish Examiner that he hopes to be in the Championship play-offs rather than with the Ireland squad in late May.
The Whites head into this weekend’s clash with top six rivals Reading having beaten Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 before the international break, which all but secured a play-off spot for Garry Monk’s side.
Now eight points adrift of the automatic spots and also eight points clear of seventh place, Leeds’ place in the end-of-season promotion battle is almost assured, giving the club a chance of returning to the top flight for the first in 13 years.
Should Leeds make it to the play-off final, they would be in action at Wembley on May 29th – and that day will be significant to Leeds midfielder Eunan O’Kane.
The midfielder featured for the Republic of Ireland in their 1-0 home defeat to Iceland on Tuesday evening, and will hope to have done enough to win a spot in Martin O’Neill’s squad in June.
However, on May 29th, Ireland will be flying out to the United States to take on Mexico just days later, before facing Uruguay back in Dublin on June 4th.
O’Kane has subsequently told the Irish Examiner that he would of course put Leeds’ play-off campaign before flying stateside with Ireland, no matter how much he wants to feature more prominently for his country.
Blackburn’s Martin Samuelsen and Leeds’ Eunan O’Kane in action
O’Kane added that he would want to face Uruguay, and felt that he did well against Iceland in midweek, but would like to be given more playing time by manager O’Neill.
“Hopefully I’ll be in the play-off but back in the squad for the friendly after that,” said O’Kane. “I would have liked to play longer than a half hour but that’s out of my hands.”
“For the time I got on, I thought I did okay. Martin said when I was going on to get on the ball and move it quickly. That’s one of my strengths and anyone who has watched me regularly will know that’s part of my game and how I play football. You never know if it’s enough to keep your place in the next squad, maybe if I scored six goals in that half hour, it would be enough!” he added.
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