Fate and family lead Aoife Mannion towards Ireland dream

Aoife Mannion's journey to the Republic of Ireland squad is rooted in a classic tale of two emigrants.

Her Galway-born father met her mother, a Mayo woman, in England after they'd moved across the water to work.

They married and joined an Irish community centre in Birmingham, bedding down in the midlands so that their children were raised to play Gaelic football and take part in Irish dancing competitions.

Mannion, now 27, represented England all the way up to under-23 level. She was on the bench for the seniors four times when Phil Neville was boss in 2019, a whisker away from being a full England international.

But she insists pulling on the green jersey is her ultimate dream.

Having been called into the squad for the first time ahead of next week's friendly against China in Spain, this former classmate of Jack Grealish is happy to embrace her own U-turn.

"Probably for little over the last year it's been my intention and desire to play for Ireland," the Manchester United defender said.

"I started messaging a couple of the girls a year ago and then I did my cruciate. The surgery put a spanner in the works. Then I bumped into Vera [Pauw] last May and told her it was my intention to play for Ireland. The process has kicked on since then and ended up getting my clearance only a week ago.

"In some ways it feels a long time coming but the clearance has just happened. Here we are.

"To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my parents so proud of anything I’ve done.

"I’ve been around football for a while and involved in few things but if they died tomorrow they’d be happy. That’s how excited how they are."

"What Vera and the players have built and achieve over the past two years is nothing short of historic"

Mannion walks into a tight