Ireland prepared to play a patient game

Mary Hannigan in Nicosia talks to Stephen Ireland who has a chance to add to his one cap on Saturday

One by one his closest friends at Manchester City have had to move on, Stephen Elliott (to Sunderland in 2004), Paddy McCarthy (to Leicester last year) and Willo Flood (to Cardiff during the summer), the departure of each not just a personal blow to Stephen Ireland, but a reminder, if he needed one, that shining at youth level is no guarantee of a future with the first team.

"It was difficult," he says of the trio's departure, "I was close to them all. When I went over to England I was only 14, I had no one else. But being Irish did help me. Richard Dunne helped me, he still does now. I keep in touch with them all, but I was shocked to see them go, I think they're all very good players."

After the impression he made last season, however, when he started 16 games for City, making 28 first-team appearances, the 20-year-old midfielder from Cobh seems destined for a longer stay in Manchester than his former team-mates.

He was rewarded with a contract that will keep him at the club until 2009. That was the good news - less encouraging was City's signing of two experienced midfielders during the summer, Dietmar Hamann (from Liverpool, via Bolton) and Ousmane Dabo from Lazio. The result is Ireland has started just one game so far this season, away to Everton last weekend, coming off the bench in another five.

"It was very difficult to be honest," he says of the arrival of the pair. "They're big names and it's only fair they start, I'm the only academy player that came through so it's only fair to sit back and leave them play. It's very frustrating, but all I can do is work harder and harder. I broke through last Saturday so I have to keep progressing and make more starts. I just turned 20, this is one of the biggest seasons I'm going to have, hopefully now I can play more than last year."

Ireland started out, as an eight-year-old, with Cobh Town Schoolboys, his first footballing trip to Manchester coming two years later when he won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools' Skills competition at Old Trafford, a "title" he retained the following year. He moved on to Cobh Ramblers, won Irish caps at under-15, 16 and 17 level, earning himself trials at Celtic and a string of English clubs, including Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

No offers were forthcoming, legend has it Ireland's suitors were frightened off by the fact he, like Kevin Doyle in his teenage years, suffered from Osgood-Schlatter Disease, a condition, common in young athletes, that causes pain and swelling below the kneecap.

Manchester City, though, gave him his chance, and at 14 he joined their youth academy. By 16 he was playing for the reserves, and a month after his 19th birthday he made his first-team debut as a substitute against Bolton.

When he started his first Premiership game, against Everton the following month (October last year), he was named man of the match. Five months later he made his senior debut for Ireland, in Steve Staunton's first game in charge, replacing his old pal Elliott in the second half. Having vowed never to play for Brian Kerr again, after a falling out at underage level, Ireland's senior international career had begun.

"I really appreciated it, I didn't think I would play, so I was over the moon to get put on," he says. "I didn't think I would even make the bench, so to play . . . I was very overwhelmed by it. Now I'm settled down, I want to get as many caps as I can, I'm happy to be in the squads and keep getting called up, whether I play or not."

The withdrawal through injury of Steven Reid, Graham Kavanagh and Stephen Carr, along with Lee Carsley's continuing exclusion from the squad, have increased Ireland's chances of adding to that one cap against Cyprus on Saturday. If Staunton switches either John O'Shea or Kevin Kilbane to left-back, with Carr's absence likely to result in Steve Finnan being switched to the right, then Ireland will compete with Liam Miller and Jonathan Douglas for a place in midfield.

"It definitely opens it up for other players to come through, it's in a lot of players' minds that they need to work harder in training, they might get a chance to play. I think there's a lot of players hungry for another start."

Carsley's absence? "Well, I think (his inclusion) would only benefit the team, to be honest. I played against him on Saturday against Everton, he's a good player . . . I really think highly of him. Stuart (Pearce) told me to try to get on the ball, to get us a goal, to express myself, but Carsley was the man on me and I found it hard to get space and get time on the ball.

"We (Ireland) are scarce in midfield at the moment. I think Lee has a lot to offer to the team, he's got good experience, he's a good player and maybe that's what we might need. But if I got put in there I'd try to show my worth to the team, but I just have to be patient, to be honest.

"As for where I'm played, I would prefer to play anywhere," he laughs. "I do like to play in the hole, having a free role, drifting and trying to get on the ball. But to be honest any kind of start for Steve Staunton I'd do anything for, I'd play left, right, anything."