England head coach will not sing national anthem today

England manager and former Ireland player Lee Carsley says won't sing either anthem for today's match in Dublin, because that's always been his stance throughout his career.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

The interim English boss says he has spoken to the squad about a potentially fervent atmosphere, as England play a competitive game in Ireland for the first time since 1990. Anglo-Irish relations have weighed over the build-up to the game, especially with so many of Carsley’s squad – including the manager himself – having an Irish background.

Declan Rice made three appearances for Ireland before switching to England, while Jack Grealish featured in youth sides. Carsley himself has 40 caps for the home nation, but did not sing the anthem before those games, and hasn’t sung the British national anthem before matches in his role as England Under-21 manager.

“This is something that I always struggled with when I was playing for Ireland,” Carlsey explained. “The gap between your warm-up, your coming on to the pitch, and the delay with the anthems. So, [singing is] something that I have never done. I was always really focused on the game and my first actions of the game. I really found that, in that period, I was wary about my mind wandering off.