Republic swansong high on McAteer's wish list

There are few members of the Republic of Ireland camp who will admit to thinking of anything beyond tomorrow's second round tie against Spain. The Sunderland midfielder Jason McAteer is one who is doing so, and in his case considering retiring from international football once the tournament is over, he revealed yesterday. Getting on to the pitch at some stage, and therefore winning a 50th cap for his country, might just be the high point that persuades him to call it a day.

"It's something I've been thinking about and talking to friends about," he said. "A few of the players are going to retire and I think there'll only be me left from Jack Charlton's reign. I'm 31 in June and I've been around for nine years. If I'm part of the game it'll be lovely to reach 50 caps and it would be going out at the top."

His thinking is that prolonging a revitalised club career may become the priority next season, at an age when Premiership football tends to find out anyone not at peak fitness: "The game's got quicker and careers are shortening. Sometimes I've been going to internationals in midweek not totally fit, then coming back, and that's not ideal preparation for Saturdays. I'm now enjoying playing for a fantastic manager at Sunderland and it would be sad to get an injury that stopped me. Hopefully I can play for a long time for them."

The reference to Sunderland's Peter Reid is a pointed one, a little barb aimed in the direction of Graeme Souness, who quickly made it clear after becoming manager of Blackburn that McAteer had no part of his plans. "One week I was marking Luis Figo against Portugal and then I couldn't get in the Blackburn squad at Gillingham," was how the player put it.

A year ago, after a below-par performance against Cyprus and with life at Ewood Park getting him down, he considered telling Mick McCarthy not to pick him again. Instead a telephone call from Bruce Rioch, his former manager at Bolton and something of a mentor, prompted a change of heart. Fortunes changed too, eventually; after scoring the only goal in the heroic victory by Ireland's 10 men against the Netherlands in Dublin last autumn, effectively guaranteeing qualification for the World Cup finals, he was signed by Reid and took on a new lease of life.

It has been a very different competition for him than on Ireland's last appearance eight years ago, when Charlton freshened up his squad in the months before the finals by bringing in McAteer, Gary Kelly and Phil Babb, the "three amigos" who kept everyone on their toes on and off the pitch.

This time he has spent less time on the pitch than he would have wished, having deceived McCarthy about his fitness in order to start the first match against Cameroon, lasting only 45 minutes and appearing once briefly as a substitute since. With Kelly now ensconced on the right of midfield, another run-out from the bench would appear to the best he can hope for tomorrow, and if the day ends in defeat it might be his last.