Jayson Molumby has hailed the "incredible" Séamus Coleman as the Republic of Ireland veteran mulls over his international future.
The 37-year-old Everton defender won his 79th senior cap in Tuesday night's 0-0 friendly draw with North Macedonia five days after seeing his dream of making it to the World Cup finals for the first time go up in smoke.
A crowd of 39,560 at the Aviva Stadium rose to applaud one of Ireland’s most dependable players when he was substituted with 29 minutes remaining, and head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson later expressed his hope that the veteran would extend his 15-year international career.
Asked about Coleman’s influence, 26-year-old West Brom midfielder Molumby said: "I’ve no idea what Seamus’ situation is, but I don’t think my words are needed, I don’t think I need to share my words to hype up Seamus Coleman.
"He’s an incredible role model for all of us coming into the squad. He’s just an absolute gentleman, an example of a top professional, top player.
"I’m very lucky to have shared many games with him for Ireland. He’s someone I respect and look up to a lot."
Should Tuesday’s game prove to be Coleman’s last in an Ireland shirt, his spell with the national team will have ended in frustration.
He and his team-mates poured heart and soul into Thursday night’s World Cup play-off semi-final against the Czech Republic, taking a 2-0 lead in Prague before being pegged back at the death and ultimately losing on penalties.
They tried to raise themselves for the friendly which replaced what they had hoped would be a final showdown with Denmark, but although striker Troy Parrott saw two goals correctly ruled out for offside and also hit a post, it ended in stalemate.
Molumby said: "It was definitely really hard to get going. It’s just a roller coaster, isn’t it?
"You prepare for four or five months for one game and full focus on that game. To then come up short and to know that you’ve got a friendly coming up a couple of days later is really tough.
"It’s definitely not easy. If anything, I think we all find it a bit harder. I think the atmosphere probably wasn’t as good as it would have been if we had a final at home.
"As players, you feed off that and you feed off the energy with the crowd as well to lift your own game, so it was tough, definitely.
"We had to get on with it and try and do our best and unfortunately we didn’t get a win. It just didn’t happen. We probably started a bit slow and it was probably getting the cobwebs off from the other day, I suppose.
"We grew into the game and we probably did enough, I’d say, to win the game, but it just didn’t drop."
