Stoke City striker Jon Walters has revealed he feels blessed as he looks forward to helping his country in the European Championships.
Walters is amongst the 20 players in the Republic of Ireland squad who have not participated in a major tournament. He will be looking forward to the first fixture of the competition, the opening clash against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Croatia-c2879 on Sunday.
The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kevin-Doyle-c20719 in attack, which would mean that Walters would have to wait for his opportunity to shine for his country. The 28-year-old is pleased with
whatever he gets, and claimed he was extremely happy with the opportunity to represent his country in a major tournament.
Walters said in an interview:
“There are some top players who never get the chance to be in a major tournament, so to be here, I feel very blessed and very privileged.
It's been a long couple of weeks and everyone wanted to get going and get here.”
Walters, along with the rest of the squad, arrived at http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Poland-c2983 on Tuesday and admitted he was enjoying himself. He considered himself to be very lucky to have a chance such as this, having worked hard his entire career to be where he was now.
Fellow striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robbie-Keane-c31215 believes it is important for the players to remain calm, but Walters revealed it was easier said than done. The Stoke City forward denied knowing the starting XI for the Croatia game, and claimed the starting line-up would not
affect his preparations for the tournament. For Walters, starting on the bench meant he had to be even better prepared as compared to the players who were starting.
He revealed:
“I didn't know he had named his XI and said it was for next week until a minute ago.
As a young boy, I was brought up to believe if you are on the bench, you have got to prepare as if you were starting the game because 30 seconds or a minute in, you could get a bad injury to one of the strikers and you could be on.”
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