Coleman and Ireland's World Cup dreams come to sorry end

Seamus Coleman’s dreams of captaining his country at next summer’s World Cup came to a sorry end on Tuesday night as Ireland succumbed to a heavy home defeat against Denmark in the second leg of their World Cup play-off.
The 5-1 loss means neither Ireland nor Coleman will feature on the World Cup stage in Russia.
And the defeat brought a sorry end to a qualifying campaign which started out so well Martin O’Neill’s side.
Coleman, who has remained out of action since sustaining a serious double-leg break in the home match against Wales last March, was in Copenhagen for Saturday night’s first leg, and was with the squad again for Tuesday night’s game.
He watched from behind the dugout as Ireland’s hopes of qualification were shattered by the Danes, and along with Glenn Whelan, took to the field on the final whistle to hug and console a number of his team-mates.
With talk of a number of players retiring from international duty following Tuesday night’s defeat, and the future of Martin O’Neill as Ireland boss uncertain, Ireland supporters will be hoping Coleman makes a return to action before too long.
Along with defender Shane Duffy, whose father Brian is from Letterkenny, Coleman will play a key role for the Republic when the qualifiers for the 2020 European Championships get up and running. The draw for the Euro qualifiers will be held on December 2nd in Dublin’s Convention Centre.