Katie McCabe has urged the FAI to review the process that has led to such confusion and frustration around the departure of Colin Healy as Republic of Ireland women's assistant coach.
Healy is unhappy with how the association dealt with his exit, claiming he had turned down job offers, having been led to believe he would stay on for another campaign regardless of how the Euro 2025 play-off final against Wales went.
The FAI maintain that Healy was aware that any contract renewal would be subject to a post-campaign review.
The dispute has sparked a strong reaction in Irish football circles. Denise O'Sullivan, Aoife Mannion and Stephen Bradley have all weighed in behind Healy, with Girls in Green captain McCabe also lending her support to the Corkman ahead of tonight's Nations League clash against Turkey.
"For me, Colin is such a genuinely honest, passionate guy who loved representing his country from a coaching point of view," she said.
"Do I agree with how the process went? No. But for us now as players we need to move on from it, we need to move forward, and I think within the association they need to review those processes and how they can do it better, because ultimately it wasn't good enough.
"For Colin to be so outspoken, it’s out of his character, because he is such a quiet man who we all respected so much. So it hurt a lot of the players, seeing that sort of treatment and what was said in the statement. Having spoken to him as well, personally, yeah, I was disappointed. But for us now, we can’t dwell on it too much.
"We need to move forward; we need to respect the new management that’s in place and work forward now."
"I want to make sure we're still qualifying for tournaments."
McCabe said she was not formally part of the FAI's review into the Euros qualification campaign but confirmed she was asked to offer some input.
"I wasn't, due to the fact I was in Norway at the time and didn’t get to speak to them in time," she added.
"I didn’t get to make that call in time. It was due to my playing schedule with Arsenal. We’d Villa and then a Champions League game.
"I’ve had an internal conversation with the FAI off the back of that, and they understand my feelings towards the whole process and the review."
The Arsenal star will captain her country for the 65th time tonight. After the bitter pain of that loss to Wales, it's a fresh start under new boss Carla Ward - a strong Nations League campaign could be the bedrock for 2027 World Cup qualification given it feeds into seeding status for the qualification draw.
"No, there is way more," McCabe replied when asked if she felt fulfilled by her international achievements to date.
"I want to make sure we're still qualifying for tournaments. To miss out on qualifying for back-to-back tournaments was a major disappointment for me personally and it’s my job as captain to pick up the pieces of that and motivate the girls.
"We’ve lost Diane (Caldwell), Niamh (Fahey) and Julie-Ann (Russell) to retirement but with that, it gives an opportunity to people to step up to the plate now and to show what they’re made of and to keep pushing this national team.
"If we’re going to keep pushing... it benefits the future of young girls playing football, which is incredible to see already over the last number of years. We want to keep improving that."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Turkey in the UEFA Women's Nations League on Friday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live commentary with 2fm’s Game On
