Declan Rice said he was thinking of his family when he decided not to celebrate scoring England's opening goal against the Republic of Ireland in their 2-0 Nations League victory at Aviva Stadium.
Unlike former Ireland Under-21 international Jack Grealish, who celebrated scoring the second goal lustily, Rice made a show of holding up his hands in the international sign of 'non-celebration celebration'.
The Arsenal midfielder, who won three Ireland caps before switching allegiance to the country of his birth, had been the target of much hostility from the crowd in the early stages, but told Sky Sports his decision not to celebrate was personal rather than an attempt to placate the home support.
"My nan and grandad on my dad's side of the family are all Irish," he said.
"They have obviously passed away, they are not here anymore. I think to have celebrated would have been really disrespectful of me, with them obviously not being here anymore and them being my dad’s parents.
"I didn’t want to do that, to be honest with you.
"I had such an amazing time playing for Ireland in the first-team, the 19s and 21s. I have great memories that will live with me. I don’t have a bad word to say, I wish them all the best, like I always do with anyone.
"Obviously, there has been so much talk this week, a lot of people in the media talking about me and Jack, and obviously Lee [Carsley], but to come here today and just to play and enjoy that environment, I really, really enjoyed it. And to score and get an assist for Jack as well, I was really happy."
We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
