Heimir hopes hybrid role will tempt Coleman back for more

Heimir Hallgrimsson is hopeful that Séamus Coleman's hybrid role for the Republic of Ireland this month will encourage him to continue his international playing career. The former Everton captain, who remains without a club and has been on record that he is still considering whether he will retire as a player or not, is not among the 24 names in the squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League group fixtures against Austria and Kosovo. But Coleman will be involved in a hybrid capacity that will see him take part in sessions with squad members but combine that with a support role alongside the coaching staff. "Hopefully that will get him to start playing again and that is our aim, to try to push him to continue playing. He has expressed that he wants to do that," Hallgrimsson said at Thursday's squad announcement. The manager admitted that while there would be a temptation to get Coleman onto the pitch during the two games to come, the 38-year-old's sharpness would first need to be assessed after almost six months without a club. "First of all, we need to see where he's at. He hasn't done a team training for some period now, so we need to see where he is at," Hallgrimsson said. "We have five players on a yellow, so there might be suspension for the second one, injury, etc, and we have a 24-man squad, so that's why we take 24 because of the yellow cards. "And knock on wood, nobody gets injured this weekend, because everybody has a game to play. "But obviously, (it's) tempting (given) how he did for us without playing much for Everton. (It) makes us believe he can always play for the national team and do good, but we'll have to wait and see." Meanwhile, Hallgrimsson said the November window had come too soon for Josh Cullen, who has stepped up his recovery from a serious knee injury sustained at the end of 2025. The Burnley midfielder marked his return with a half of football for his club's under-21s two weeks ago and has since made two substitute appearances for the first-team in recent days. Josh Cullen (r) has returned for Burnley but has only made two second-half cameos "I spoke to Josh on Tuesday in London when he was playing and he is very close," Hallgrimsson said. "He is fit, but he is not maybe international fit. Not 90 minutes fit. So he wants to wait and fully get his fitness back with the staff at his club." Similarly, Evan Ferguson and Jaden Umeh both need "a little more time" after their respective injury lay-offs, Hallgrimsson said, adding: "Hopefully by March we will have everybody fit and flying." Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu - the only Ireland squad member who opted not to play against Israel in the last camp - is also absent for the November window, having missed the last two games for Bolton Wanderers with what had been an unspecified injury. Hallgrimsson confirmed the nature of the Dubliner's setback: "It was a quad - a grade one quad I think - he's not been in two (Bolton) camps now and he won't play on Saturday. He told me he was going to be fit but that's the nature of his injury." Watch the Club Orange FAI Cup final, Derry City v Waterford FC, on Sunday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1 Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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