1 week Ago By [email protected] (Mark McCadden)
Ireland midfielder Denise O’Sullivan showed off her engagement ring ahead of a huge night for the Cork native and her Girls in Green teammates. O’Sullivan will captain Carla Ward’s side in the absence of Katie McCabe when Ireland take on Greece for the second time in four days in the Nations League. She will win her 123rd cap, just 11 shy of Emma Byrne’s record, in the game, with O’Sullivan and her teammates favourites to take the points after putting four past the Greeks in Crete last Friday.
Arsenal star McCabe is suspended for Tuesday’s game after she picked up her second booking of the campaign last Friday. O’Sullivan sat alongside new head coach Ward at the pre-match press conference on Monday morning to speak about the game - with her new engagement ring on show. Asked if she had some personal news, the midfielder replied: “I mean, I got engaged.
” Ward followed up: “It is a very nice ring, may I add.” O’Sullivan was asked where the proposal took place and she said: “Where we had our second date, at a park, pretty chilled.” No hesitation? “Oh no.
” O’Sullivan plays her club football with North Carolina Courage. It’s there that she met husband-to-be James Hamblin , who works as a Senior Account Executive in sports software company Teamworks. Hamblin is also an actor and stunt double, who landed his first role for TV in spring of 2014.
Since then, he's starred as an American football player in a range of sports films - often as an extra or in a minor role. His latest performance was as a medic in the thriller movie 'Incision'. As for Tuesday’s challenge, O’Sullivan warned against complacency after last Friday’s stunning second-half performance, which saw Ireland score all four goals after the break.
“I think they have threats, they're a good team,” she said. “For us, it's not being complacent, putting our foot on the gas and going from the first minute. “We love playing in Tallaght in front of our fans, it's a big game for us and really important.
” The 4-0 win in Greece was crucial not just to Ireland’s hopes of clinching automatic promotion back to League A, but also in restoring confidence to the side after February’s shock 4-0 defeat in Slovenia. “Yeah, that Slovenia game was obviously very disappointing for us,” said O’Sullivan. “After that game we all wanted to get back on the pitch as soon as possible.
It was important to get that result and it is a boost that has given us some confidence. “I think we'll take that into the game tomorrow and we'll be looking to put in another good performance.” Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .
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