Denise O'Sullivan: Katie is at the peak of her powers

Denise O'Sullivan says her Republic of Ireland team-mate Katie McCabe is currently at the peak of her powers and hellbent on leading her country back to another major tournament.

McCabe is on the shortlist for the this year's Ballon d'Or award, with the winner set to named in Paris on Monday. She's the first Irish footballer to be nominated for the award since Roy Keane in 2000.

The Tallaght woman has had an incredible year with Arsenal and Ireland, being crowned player of the season at her club before spearheading the Girls in Green's first appearance at a World Cup in Australia.

She's carried that momentum into this campaign, lashing in a screamer in September's 4-0 UEFA Nations League win in Hungary and bagging a brilliant brace last weekend to help the Gunners to a 2-1 Women's Super League victory.

McCabe will miss Monday's star-studded gala because she will be in Albania to prepare for Ireland's UEFA Nations League clash, but O'Sullivan, and interim Ireland boss Eileen Gleeson, are determined to mark the occasion.

"Oh yeah, 100%," O'Sullivan said when asked if McCabe was now in her prime.

"To be nominated for such a prestigious award is incredible and for an Irish player to do that, we're really lucky to have her.

"I was speaking to Katie today and I was talking to her about the awards and all she could speak about was, 'I want to captain my country and that's really all I care about right now, and playing Albania'.

"So she was fully focused on the game and you can see that in Katie, how fully invested she is in this team and how much she wants to go out and play for her country, she loves doing it.

"But we're all really proud of her here."

Gleeson echoed those sentiments, adding: "We haven't discussed any plans [to watch the