Nathan Collins Bigs Up Role of Unused Ireland Star in Reaching Play-Offs Seamus Coleman played a pivotal role for Ireland over the last few games. Having been left out of the squad in September, he would go on to start each of the last four qualifiers. While Coleman's role was an obvious one, Nathan Collins would also credit the return of John Egan as having a major impact on the squad yesterday: I had faith in this team. There's two people that have come into this camp recently, and that's Seamus Coleman and John Egan. What they've put into the team, the energy they've given and the belief and faith they've put back into us from when we were so down, it's unbelievable credit to them. This team is special. I said it after Finland away (in 2024) when we came back. We have something special and let's hope we can do more. John Egan played only a small role on the pitch in recent weeks, coming on for the final moments of the loss to Portugal in October. However, it seems as though the Hull City man was a big presence in the dressing room during that period. The Cork native previously captained Ireland on a number of occasions, wearing the armband in the absence of Seamus Coleman quite a few times under Stephen Kenny. With a World Cup play-off now in the offing, you get the sense that he will be part of the Ireland setup moving forward.
