England coach Gareth Southgate has defended selecting players who have been capped by the Republic of Ireland.
The Three Lions could field three players in Thursday's friendly against Ireland who once pulled on the emerald green shirt - Declan Rice (West Ham), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) and Michael Keane (Everton).
Southgate said: “All those boys have had a lot to consider in making that decision.
“That's why none of them took those decisions lightly, I'm sure - well, I know they didn't.
“To make those decisions at such a young age, it's so difficult to know what you want to do and where you want to head.
“All those boys reflected on that and decided they wanted to play for England.
“All were born in England, of course. It's not that we've asked people to come across.
“We played Wales last month and they had a couple of players who were with us as youngsters - Tyler Roberts and Ethan Ampadu. We didn't want to lose them.
“I think everybody is facing these challenges with dual-nationality players and we've always got to get the balance right of not capping them too early, just to stop them going somewhere else.
“We want to be fair to them so they can have a career."
