Former Republic of Ireland midfielder Mark Kinsella has urged every man in Martin O'Neill's squad keep believing they will have a part to play in France and described the moment he thought his World Cup dream was in ruins.
O'Neill is preparing to finally confirm the 23-man panel he'll bring to Euro 2016, with friendlies against the Netherlands on Friday night and Belarus next Tuesday the final auditions before the plane tickets are dished out.
While some will miss out on the experience completely, others will travel in the knowledge their chances of game time will be extremely slim, but Kinsella has stressed the importance of adopting the right mentality for the greater good.
Kinsella had played a key role in Ireland's qualification for Korea and Japan, but injury had opened the door for Matt Holland to partner Roy Keane and seemingly squeeze out the then Charlton man.
"There's loads of players going there probably thinking, 'I'm not going to play'. Only 11 can play," he told RTÉ Sport's football podcast The Panel.
"I was told in Dublin Airport by Mick [McCarthy] before we left Dublin that I was No 12, and that I wouldn’t be starting the first game of the World Cup.
“I could have taken my bags off the plane and gone home because in your mind you have this feeling that you’re not going to play football.
“I was devastated because I had played the qualifying games. Matt [Holland] had filled in when I had injuries so we had three fighting for two places.
"I was set up to accept it then come matchdays, rather than being told 45 minutes before kick-off or the morning of the game it was probably easier for me to accept then that I was going to go there and be part of a squad.
“I accepted it. Matty had played with Roy in the last five or six games to get a bit of a partnership going and I had come in after my operation the last three or four. Matty had to sit out the majority of the campaign because myself and Roy were playing. It was just one of those things."
What transpired since has gone down in Irish sporting history. Roy Keane's explosive fallout with McCarthy in Saipan led to the captain walking out of the World Cup, and gave Kinsella an unexpected route back in to the starting 11.
“We had a show put on for us on the Wednesday so we came down at half six and the kitman at the time pulled me aside and said, ‘he’s leaving, you’re in!’," Kinsella recalled of the bust-up.
"So... I’m sitting there, and we were playing Cameroon in six days. I was thinking, ‘bloody hell, I could be starting in the World Cup’. Two and half hours later I come out of the show and the kitman pulls me aside and says, ‘he’s staying!’
“It was up and down. It’s something that happened, we had to get on with it and I ended up playing four games."
