Oliver proud to be Irish, until he’s not

OLIVER NORWOOD is the captain of Sheffield United in the Premier League. That is a lot of responsibility and a huge amount of commitment is required. Sheffield United will not survive this season without getting the most out of every member of Chris Wilder’s squad and Norwood (below) is huge for them. It is his first season as a Premier League footballer and the immediate casualty is his international career. This week, after 57 caps, he called it a day with Northern Ireland. Michael O’Neill, his manager, said he was making a huge mistake. Former player Jim Magilton believes he will regret it. David Healy, now manager of Linfield, added that the decision beggars belief. ‘He could play international football at the same time,’ Healy insisted. ‘Steven Davis has done it, Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley, Craig Cathcart. Even back in the day players like Neil Lennon, Steve Lomas and Keith Gillespie did both. I did it myself.’ Notice anything about that list? All of the players mentioned are from Northern Ireland. Davis, Evans, McAuley, Cathcart, Lennon, Gillespie and Healy were born there. Lomas was born in Hanover, Germany, but only because his father was in the army. By the age of two, he lived in Coleraine. Norwood is from Burnley. He played for England at Under 16 and Under 17 level, and then reappeared in Northern Ireland’s teams from Under 19, and has remained with the country ever since. He qualifies through his grandfather and has been a loyal mainstay of O’Neill’s team. Yet last season Norwood made himself unavailable for the first four European Championship qualifiers — and now this. The problem with allowing players to switch nationalities is that it makes international football a jacket that can be tried for size and discarded when it doesn’t suit. No doubt Norwood felt very proud to be Northern Irish — right up until the moment he felt prouder to play in the Premier League.