AFC Bournemouth midfielder Harry Arter has admitted that he knew he would miss Euro 2016 as soon as he went for a scan on his new injury.
Arter was included in Martin O’Neill’s provisional Republic of Ireland squad for their warm-up games prior to the tournament in France.
The 26-year-old picked up the injury while training with the squad, but played with the knock against Netherlands, completing 90 minutes and putting in a man of the match performance in the 1-1 draw – their penultimate game before the tournament.
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The midfielder was hopeful of a miracle recovery, but missed the second friendly with Belarus, before being forced to pull out of the squad.
"I went away fully fit and I felt great," Arter said.
"I was just looking forward to try and impress and get into the squad. I’m not saying I definitely would have been included, but I had positive chats with the manager so it was really disappointing I couldn’t make it.
"The game against Holland was a massive chance to prove myself that I could play at this level, I hadn't started for Ireland before that game but I was pleased with my performance.
"I suffered the injury the day before the friendly, I just kicked a ball in training and felt my quad go.
"But I didn’t want to say I was injured, I wanted to prove myself so I strapped it up so tight and took painkillers, praying it would go away.
"I did feel better after the game, but when I trained on the Monday it was quite apparent I wouldn’t be fine. As soon as I went for the scan I knew I wouldn’t make it.
"I couldn’t go to the tournament with an injury, professionally, it would have been unfair on the squad, the manager and there would be no point as I wouldn’t be doing myself justice. It was tough to take.”
Despite his injury though, Arter impressed in the national set up, with assistant manager Roy Keane saying that he expects the Cherries man to bounce back from this setback in the press.
Arter praised both Keane and manager O’Neill and is hopeful of continuing his international career next season.
"Both Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill were really good with me," he continued.
"I had a good 20-25 minute chat with Roy and it was really beneficial for me. I’ll keep our conversation private but I have huge respect for him, I grew up admiring him and obviously I’d listen to anything he had to say.
"He said some nice things in the press afterwards about me which was nice to read and I had a similar chat with Martin O’Neill.
"Again, I won’t say what he said but I'm hungry to get back playing for my country and while I'm disappointed to miss out, I'm looking forward to the future."
