Harry Arter has admitted he is facing a struggle to book a place in martin O'Neill's 23 man squad for the European Championships.
The Bournemouth midfielder hasn't played since the 20th of March for his club after sustaining an Achilles injury in a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, causing him to withdraw from the Irish squad for their recent friendlies against Slovakia and Switzerland.
It is unlikely Arter will feature again this season in the Premier League but that doesn't mean he has given up hope of featuring in this Summer's tournament.
"I don’t need to be told that I am fighting to get one of the last places in the final 23," he told the Sunday World.
"Plenty of players assured of their places and rightly so because they were crucial in getting us to Euro 2016 and the rest of us are just pushing to make the final cut.
"Hopefully the manager and his staff appreciate that I am doing everything I can to get fit for this summer."
"The truth was I could hardly walk on the Achilles and there was never going to be much chance of me playing," he continued.
"I was desperate to get over to Dublin and hope against hope that I would wake up in the team hotel on the first morning of training and there would have been at miraculous recovery.
"The Bournemouth lads that were not involved in international matches headed off on a trip to Dubai as we had a break in the Premier League, but I skipped the trip to show how much I wanted to be a part of the Ireland squad.
"In the end, I couldn't play. It was a big disappointment, as I knew it could have been a last big chance to try and get into the Euro 2016 squad"
Despite his injury woes, Arter hopes he can get fit for Bournemouth's last few games and will hope to do enough to convince Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane of a place in the Irish squad.
"My aim is to try and play the final two or three Premier League games of the season for Bournemouth see if that is enough to get me a chance with Ireland at the Euros," he said.
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