DARRON GIBSON IS eager to show Ireland fans what they have been missing out on — starting in Cologne on Friday.
The Derry native hasn’t featured for Ireland since the draw with Hungary in a pre-Euro 2012 last June having made himself unavailable for selection by Giovanni Trapattoni due to the Italian’s decision to pick Paul Green over him at the finals in Poland.
With Trap gone however, the 25-year-old has returned to the international fold this week and is contention to start against Germany in two days time.
And while he insists that there were no problems settling back thanks to his team-mates, Gibson is keen to prove himself to supporters of the Boys in Green.
“It’s great to be back,” the Everton midfielder told reporters today. “It does feel like that (he is relauching his Ireland career) a little bit. Not with the players who were fine but with the fans.
I’ve got something to prove as I felt I should have played so hopefully I’ll get my chance on Friday night to show what I can do.”
Gibson added the there are no issues with Green: “Me and Paul Green get on well. I didn’t say anything bad about him. I just said I should’ve been playing ahead of him. That was it.”
With caretaker manager Noel King testing out a variety of formations during this week’s training camp in Malahide, it is unclear who he intends to pick against the Group C leaders.
Whatever the system, Gibson is just hopeful of being involved from the start so he can contribute to earning an encouraging result.
“It (training) has been good,” he said. “What he has been doing is very good and he knows his stuff. Hopefully it will pay off on Friday night.
“We’ve worked on a few different formations and he has changed the team around a few times. At the minute, I don’t think he has picked his team yet.
“We’re working with Noel and are going to try and get a result for him.”
