The Irish attacking midfielder of Stoke City, Stephen Ireland has completed his recovery from the rib injury that he sustained at the beginning of the season which forced the player on only being able to make 1 Premier League appearance for Stoke City out of the 6 League matches which have been played so far.
Stephen Ireland made a total of 25 appearances in the last season for his club as he was an important for Stoke City and Mark Hughes is hoping that now that he is recovered, his return to the squad can ignite the season of Stoke.
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Stephen Ireland has said that his stint at his previous club Aston Villa was nightmarish.
Ireland left Villa to join Stoke in January this year. He just made 47 top tier appearances for the Lions scoring a solitary goal which came against Chelsea in the 2011-12 Season.
Before signing for Stoke permanently, Ireland had spent a few months there on loan.
Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has revealed that he is still not happy with his squad and wants to sign a couple of players before the end of the transfer window. Stoke have been one of the two clubs so far in this summer transfer window after signing the likes of Steve Sidwell and Phil Bardsley on free transfers. Hughes has been trying to work within the budget. Since players like Sidwell have come on a free transfer, he will be having funds to spend before the end of the summer transfer window.
The manager of the Republic of Ireland football team, Martin O’Neill, has said that if Stephen Ireland wants to bring himself back into consideration for a place in the national squad, he will have to get in touch with him at some point of time next month.
O’Neill is not at all impressed with the fact that Ireland is not responding to the phone calls made to him.
Stephen Ireland is a constant starter in Stoke City but despite this, he was not featured in the provisional squad and list of players that was created by Martin O’Neil which includes all of the performers which will play for Ireland in their upcoming friendly matches.
In the next few weeks and month Ireland has to lock horns with Turkey, Italy, Costa Rica and Portugal all of which are friendly matches that are going to take place before the start of the 2014 World Cup.