Marcus McGuane lifts lid on talks around international future with Bristol City teammates

Marcus McGuane has admitted he has held conversations with his Bristol City teammates about representing Ireland on the international stage but insists his focus is on playing for the Reds.

The midfielder joined the Robins' ranks from Oxford United during the summer transfer window and has quickly won over supporters with a series of impressive displays in the middle of the park.

In his youth career, which saw McGuane spend time with both Arsenal and Barcelona, the 25-year-old represented both the Republic of Ireland and England, with former Bristol City assistant coach Paul Simpson the man to hand the midfielder his U19 debut for the Three Lions.

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As a senior player, the former Oxford United man is yet to make his full international debut but remains eligible to feature for the two sides that he represented at youth level.

Liam Manning's squad already has a strong Irish contingent with Jason Knight, Mark Sykes and Max O'Leary regular members of Heimir Hallgrimsson's side while Sinclair Armstrong featured for the under-21s earlier this season. Although McGuane has discussed the possibility of representing the Boys in Green in the future with his teammates, he insists that his focus remains on matters at Ashton Gate.

"I've had a few conversations with the boys about it," McGuane told Bristol Live prior to City's clash with Plymouth Argyle. "Primarily my focus is on being at Bristol. I want to be successful here, I want to play well here and I feel like everything else will take care of itself.

"That hasn't really been my focus, for me it's cementing my place here, cementing my position in the team and I feel like that's my main focus at the moment.

"I feel like the opportunity would have to be there before I could even think about that but I just want to play at the highest level, the best level. Obviously, internationally you're going to be playing against some of the best players in the world and Europe so that's 100% something that I'd like to be involved in but like I said my main focus is here and just playing."

McGuane missed the Robins' 4-0 thrashing of Plymouth Argyle at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon through injury, as a brace from Anis Mehmeti and goals from Scott Twine and Armstrong secured a much-needed three points for Manning's side.

The Bristol City boss explained the midfielder's injury ahead of kick-off, suggesting a late call had been made around his fitness after he suffered a back spasm on the eve of the game.

"Concerning for today, but nothing longer-term, he warmed up yesterday and had a spasm in his back," Manning told BBC Radio Bristol on Saturday afternoon. "We got him in this morning to assess and see how he was, but he was a little bit worse this morning, so nothing major.

"But naturally when he’s struggling to walk with a spasm in his back, playing today would be difficult."

In McGuane's absence, Max Bird dropped into a deeper role to accompany Knight in the middle of the park with Twine the man to replace the former in the number 10 position just behind lone striker Nahki Wells.

While the Robins coped without the former Oxford United man, Manning will be hoping that the 25-year-old is fit and available to feature against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Saturday as City make the trip to the south coast to face John Mousinho's side.

Although the Reds have plenty of depth both in defence and attack, they are slightly short of numbers in the middle of the park with Joe Williams ruled out longer term with an Achilles tendon injury.

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