JOHN O’SHEA is hoping for a United Ireland front before his players return to battling it out with each other for survival.
Belgium rock into town ranked fourth in the world, although Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois are all missing for tomorrow’s friendly.
Ireland— with interim boss O’Shea at the helm — lie 62nd, sandwiched between Burkina Faso and DR Congo.
But it is the Premier League table which will concern his players the most, with Irish representatives at each of the bottom six clubs.
Currently-crocked John Egan and budding Under-21 star Sam Curtis are at basement side Sheffield United.
Josh Cullen and Dara O’Shea are team-mates at second-from-bottom Burnley.
Andrew Omobamidele’s Nottingham Forest fell into the drop zone after being docked four points earlier this week.
That allowed Chiedozie Ogbene’s Luton side to move out of it but neither he, Séamus Coleman — whose Everton side had a ten-point deduction reduced to six — nor Nathan Collins at Brentford are taking anything for granted.
Coleman said: “It’s been tough at the club. The position we’re in is the position we’re in and we’ve got ten games to go in the league.
“We’ve got to fully focus on what we can do as players, to make sure we stay together because we’ve been there for a couple of years unfortunately.
“I’m a strong believer that the group that stays together the most, sticks together, fights together will be OK. We have to have that focus for the next ten games.”
On Forest’s punishment, Omobamidele said: “It’s tough, especially getting news when we’re not together as a team.
“Me and Nathan have a lot of conversations, we are from the same area, so I talk to him regularly.
“We bounce things off each other regarding games and the relegation battle. It’s about experience, how quick you can get it and how fast you can develop and adapt.
”But if he was expecting a sympathetic ear about Forest’s latest setback he was mistaken, as Collins said: “There’s a bit of banter.
“I was giving Andrew some stick about his points deduction but he’s taking it well and given me stick. That’s natural and normal.
“Myself and Séamie have been in the relegation fight for three years. We joke about that. We’re here together as a team, we’re Ireland but when we go back to our clubs we can be enemies again.”