Coleman 'intention is to play' despite sitting out window

Séamus Coleman intends to continue his Republic of Ireland career but felt it would be "unfair" to accept a call up for the upcoming Nations League window because of his unattached club status, according to Heimir Hallgrimsson.

Former Everton captain Coleman's 17-year spell in the blue half of Merseyside came to an end at the culmination of last season.

Since then, the Donegal man, who will turn 38 next month, has yet to sign for a new club, a status he shares with Ireland team-mate Robbie Brady.

Coleman has been training individually as he confirmed in an interview with the Stick To Football podcast earlier this month.

He was a notable absentee from the Ireland squad named on Thursday for the four opening UEFA Nations League fixtures.

But his international manager Hallgrimsson said that he expects him to return for future camps.

"My intention, in whatever shape or form that will be, he will be with us in the future, hopefully as a player. His intention is to play, he is keeping fit but he hasn't been training with a club or with a team," Hallgrimsson said at a press conference, confirming that both Coleman and Brady were on the lookout for clubs.

"We felt, together, it was more his decision that it was appropriate he would sit out this one. Mostly because he felt it was unfair to other players that he would be picked at this moment."

Captain Nathan Collins was an expected absentee after picking up a calf injury on Brentford duty earlier this month.

Hallgrimsson said the defender is in line to return to club action after the international break.

He also sounded a note of optimism about the potential availability of long-term absentees Evan Ferguson and Josh Cullen for the November window.

The duo have not featured for Ireland since November 2025 due to ankle issues and a cruciate knee ligament injury respectively.

"They will probably start training on the grass with (their club teams) after the FIFA window sometime. So maybe next camp is their time," Hallgrimsson said.

The Icelandic native did opt to include versatile Stoke City player Bosun Lawal but added that the one-time senior cap is unlikely to feature heavily in the upcoming window.

"He is injured at the moment, but we still rate him that highly," Hallgrimsson said.

"We still want him in the camp, being with us and around us. I don't expect him to play much.

"But we are in collaboration with Stoke City, just to see how much he can do and will load him and hopefully he can take some part in the end of this camp.

"But we rate him that highly that we think it is necessary for him to be around the squad."

After Ireland face Kosovo away in Pristina next Thursday, the second group game will be the first of two controversial fixtures against Israel which are being played at neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia respectively.

Hallgrimsson confirmed that he had spoken to the squad members one-on-one to gauge their feelings about being involved in those matches.

"I have spoken to all of them individually on that, because you shouldn't be doing this (in) a group talk," he said.

"And obviously we have different opinions, different strength of opinion. I think it's best to say, without going into individual (situations), none of us feel comfortable playing these games.

"But once we have decided to play them, we all stick together and play as one, and we want to represent Ireland with the best games and performances that we can.

"So that's just that's the agreement between all of us. But obviously, we don't have to all share the same opinion, and that's just human nature."

Hallgrimsson added that he was keen to continue the on-pitch momentum from recent months despite the recently announced restructure of the Nations League.

UEFA has decided to move from four tiers to three which means teams in League B will not face automatic relegation to League C as in previous editions.

"(There are) lots of reasons why we want to do really well in these Nations League matches," he said.#

"Again, the importance of this moment, these games, we are on a good run, we are on a positive spiral, we (would) like to keep that going, (and) have not lost in the last seven matches. Long may that continue.

"We are conceding less goals and all the metrics that we are using to kind of look at how our performance is improving."

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