Slowly but surely, he reckons, Jeff Hendrick is getting to grips with the realities of being a part of the international set up. On the pitch, it's been duck to water stuff for the 21-year-old to be fair with two assists in three fairly brief appearances reinforcing the impression that he has the potential to make a really serious impact for Ireland over the years ahead.

Behind the scenes, though, there has been the odd thing that has left him a little lost for words, like eating dinner next to one of his boyhood idols.

“I was saying to one of the lads,” he reveals with a lingering sense of wonder, “that I remember World Cup 2002 and I had my face painted, I was about nine or 10 at the time, and there was Robbie Keane scoring goals in Japan. Then (in Sweden) I was sitting beside him at dinner. I couldn’t get over that; it was a bit crazy.

“He hadn’t been in the Poland squad and I’d never met him before. So this was the first time he talked to me and I was a bit nervous. I didn’t know what way to answer him. I’ve got to know him a bit better now . . . it’s mad.”

Hendrick certainly seems startled by the speed of his own rise.

Progressing nicely
At Derby his career has been progressing nicely since he first broke into the first team two years ago but as recently as last October he was in the Ireland under-21 squad with no immediate prospect, it seemed, of a senior call up.

By February, though, he was making his debut and showing an eye for an opportunity as he set up Wes Hoolahan to score. That also characterised his play on Sunday when Keane, his old hero, was the beneficiary of his cool head and quick feet. He was, he says, happy to set up the goal but relieved too “not mess up as they say”.

These are still very early days for the Dubliner who played his schoolboy football with St Kevin’s before a dozen or more trials at English clubs, including Manchester United, yielded an offer he liked from Derby. But the ease with which he has coped so far with the transition from the more frantic football of the Championship has been genuinely eye-catching.

“International football is different,” he readily acknowledges. “Obviously you get more time on the ball, especially in your own half, and the Championship is 100 miles an hour with players in your face.

“Obviously (with Ireland) you are playing against better players and if you do give the ball away you are more likely to be punished. When I get on the ball I have to be calm and give it to a green jersey.”

Central midfield
It's a rather elementary explanation of the task at hand for Ireland's central midfield and yet one that it sometimes seems not everyone has had explained to them.

Hendrick, in any case, has done considerably better than that with his composure and drive marking him out as another positive option for Trapattoni at a time that the manager genuinely seems open to embracing them all.

Roy Keane for his ability to “take a game by the scruff of its neck”, and Paul Scholes, for his remarkable range of passing head the list of his midfield role models and he likes to think he has a little bit of everything to his own game. The relentless schedule at a Championship club helps to ensure that he has plenty of opportunity to develop every aspect of his talent.

'Physically strong'
"It's tough; you've got to be mentally and physically strong for the Championship and it's helped me out a lot. Even when I've been playing bad, there's so many games, I've got through that. It's good that way."

There has been little enough feedback from Trapattoni, he says, regarding his first three caps but there can be little doubt that he has made a positive impression, with the Italian name checking him increasing regularity these days.

He remains level headed about it all: “He just lets us get on with it and makes sure we train hard,” he says. “And that’s what you’ve got to do.”