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Dunne back on Ireland duty soon?
By Larry Cooney
 The surprise ommission of defender Richard Dunne from Brian Kerr’s last squad against Cyprus and Switzerland raised considerable doubts about the Manchester City player’s international future.
However, it has now emerged that Dunne could be set for a return to the Republic’s squad for next month’s games against France and Faroe Islands.
Dunne, who has been capped 20 times for Ireland, was surprisingly left out of the squad to face Cyprus and Switzerland, after missing summer friendlies while preparing for a hernia operation.
The Dubliner’s club form has also been quite inconsistent since his move to the City of Manchester Stadium after leaving Everton four seasons ago.
Dunne made his Everton debut in 1996 as a 17-year-old when Joe Royle was manager at Goodison Park and went on to make 81 appearances for the Liverpool club before his £3million transfer.
After Kevin Keegan took City back to the Premership, Richard found himself out of the team for a while.
However, Dunne made 25 Premiership appearances last season while also returning to international duty. Dunne has also made a promising start in the Premiership this season and looks set to join the international squad according to manager Brian Kerr, who hinted:
“I’ve known the lad for a long time now having worked with him with the under-age teams. Richard is a good player and I haven’t forgotten about him.
“But you can only pick so many defenders when you name a squad and he was unlucky to miss out on this occasion.”
Speaking about Dunne’s prospects of an international recall, Kerr concluded: “We have about 28 players in or around the squad now and some will obviously miss out. But Richard could certainly be back in the squad before too long because I haven’t given up on him.”
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