Manchester United’s Aoife Mannion made her international debut on Wednesday in a friendly fixture against China after changing her allegiance from England to Ireland.
In a goalless tie against AFC Women’s Asian Cup winners in Marbella, Mannion was involved in Vera Pauw’s starting XI as part of the five-player backline in her first time in green.
She told Sky Sports: “It's been such a special day for me and to be honest it's only now that the game’s over that I’m letting it settle in a little bit. It's probably only now that I feel a little bit overwhelmed by how special the day has been.
“Before the game, leading up to it everything’s about the task at hand and all of the little details that we’ve got to try and do in the game but it's only now where I’m having a little bit of a sigh of relief, we got a clean sheet, we put on a good performance and so I think overall we’re quite pleased as a team and personally obviously I'm really pleased because it's the first time.”
The defender went through the English youth system right through to the senior set-up in 2019 but while she had two call-ups, Mannion did not feature for the Lionesses.
With international clearance from FIFA, the 27-year-old decided to chase the dream to represent her family’s home nation as she held an Irish passport before an English one with family from Mayo and Galway.
She said: “Sometimes it’s hard to get my parents to come down the road in England but to travel across seas on a plane to see me play for Ireland - different story entirely. It’s lovely to have them here, I've got loads of family in Ireland who’ve been watching it and everyone's tuned in and I'm just really pleased for the day.”
Mannion is on the road to recovery from her second Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury and is yet to see Women’s Super League action this 2022/23 campaign, however, saw her return to the pitch in the January warm weather camp against Birkirkara.
In preparations for the Women’s World Cup in the summer, Ireland have two international friendlies lined up, against Zambia in late June and France in early July. Regarding what's next for the Manchester United defender, Mannion said: “Just at this moment I'm just absorbing this last 10 days, it's been so good to come away with everyone get to know some friendly faces, everyone's been so lovely. There are a few more warm-up games over the next few months so I can only hope that Vera will want to ask me back again.
“In this moment I'm just really pleased with the day. I'm pleased that I’ve been able to make my debut and I want to keep putting this green shirt on, so we will see.”
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