Arter and O'Kane will watch Euros from the sofa

It was touch and go whether Eunan O'Kane might have squeezed into Martin O'Neil's squad but there was no hope left for Harry Arter in the end with a thigh injury that cruelly ruled him out just 24 hours before the squad was to be named. While both players had been on the fringe of the Republic Ireland team it had seemed that Arter would have done enough had he kept fit.

Eunan is also out of the Euros along with Arter.
If he had decided to be a Northern Ireland player as
 he was in his youth, it is likely that Eunan would have
been in high demand north of the border.

It has been a hard season though for Arter and perhaps the rest will not be such a bad thing for his body. Having been struggling with the Achilles problem for a while it was maybe not the ideal preparation for him in any case.

There was less questions about Eunan O'Kane's omission from the final cut. Eunan has not played that many games for AFCB with 20 appearances and 10 of those from the subs bench. While Eunan made his debut for his country first, he has not managed to secure a prominent role yet and he will have more work to do next season to push for a place in the Bournemouth team if he is to have a bigger international career.

That does not leave AFCB fans with much excitement for the Euros. Artur Boruc could play a significant role for Poland but there won't be any out field players on show from the Cherries and who would have thought that back in March or April?

Meanwhile, Roy Hodgson has been picking the England squad and you can see my views on that group of players by heading over to the Euro 2016 tab - Ray Hodgson papering over the cracks.