Hogan "really keen" to play for Ireland

Aston Villa striker Scott Hogan is set to declare for Ireland following positive talks with national team manager Martin O'Neill.

Salford-born Hogan qualifies for Ireland through his grandparents but postponed a decision over his international future during his recovery from a major knee injury.

But the 25-year-old is now back and playing for Aston Villa in the Championship, and has told O'Neill he is ready to commit to Ireland.

Hogan has formally applied for his Irish passport, although the paperwork is unlikely to go through in time for the World Cup qualifiers with Georgia and Serbia at the start of September.

"He's keen, he's very keen," O'Neill said. 

"I want the players to have a genuine enthusiasm for playing for the Republic of Ireland because I don't want to lose that.

"I think you'd want to see that there's a genuine feeling that 'I want to come, I want to play, I want to try and make the grade at international level and play for us'. That's all the encouragement I want."

O'Neill cut a frustrated figure when repeatedly asked about Hogan's availability in press conferences over the past 12 months, but the Ireland boss insists the reluctance to commit did not stem from the player.

"Scott is very enthusiastic about doing it," he continued.

"He's mentioned his reasons before and I think he felt he probably felt that he might not have been up to it at that stage because he might not have been fit enough. 

"There seemed to be an impasse. There's no point in me going into that detail but it certainly wasn't from the player."

O'Neill says Hogan, who signed for Villa from Brentford at the end of the January transfer window in a £12m deal, is a natural goalscorer but needs to work on his link-up play if he is to thrive in international football.

"I don't think he’d mind me saying, I think he can improve definitely in terms of hold-up play," the Derryman continued.

"I've seen a lot of him for Brentford last year and I understood completely at the time when there was the hullabaloo about him coming in, he needed time to stay fit because of the number of problems he had with injury during his early 20s.

"But inside the box I think he knows where the goal is. He does. Some players do come alive in the box and I think he has that. 

"That's encouraging. Like everything else you need a bit of service but he can improve his overall game and I think he feels that himself."

Photo Getty Images/ Neville Williams

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