Aaron Connolly couldn't hide his frustration at the course of events over the six days.
It was in Bratislava last Thursday that Adam Idah and himself learned that their close contact to a positive Covid case - a non-playing FAI official - ruled them out of playing in the Euro play-off semi-final under HSE guidelines.
Although the case was later confirmed as a false positive, neither were involved in the Nations League game with Wales on Wednesday but returned for tonight's 1-0 defeat to Finland in the same competition.
But Brighton striker Connolly, 20, is clearly frustrated with the way things worked out in Slovakia, where Ireland's play-off hopes ended on penalties.
“Frustrating," he said, speaking after the loss in Helsinki. "That’s all I can say.
"In the UK, if those are the rules, then I play the game...1.9 metres away from someone who ended up with a false positive.
“I don’t want to go into it too much, but to miss a game like that...I might never get the chance to play in a game like that again.
”To miss that game is frustrating - and I can’t really put into words how frustrating it actually is.”
It's a word that also sums up his feelings on tonight's game.
The Galwegian played well and looked dangerous throughout, but he is still waiting for his first goal at senior international level.
Connolly took the wrong option at times and he knows it himself.
“Selfish at times," he told Sky Sports. "I probably should have squared one to Daryl (Horgan) but I’ve tried to go at a tight angle.
“It’s them sort of moments that cost us the game.
"I need to start looking at that side of my game and just game awareness really. It’s cost us, I think.”
“Obviously as a striker you need to be selfish, but at times you need to know when to shoot and when to pass.
“It’s just one of them where I thought at the time it was the best thing to shoot.
“But looking back on it, I definitely should be squaring that.”
Ireland are still waiting for a first win under Stephen Kenny and it was a similar story to the previous games in this international window, with the Republic playing well and creating chances but lacking a killer instinct when it counted.
In the end it was a mistake by Darron Randolph that proved costly.
“I think we deserved to win that game," said Connolly.
"I’m not even sure what happened for the goal, obviously we’ve lost it at the back and they’ve punished us.
“It’s disappointing. It’s another game that we haven’t scored in and you feel like there’s going to be a break sometime for us and we’ll put one in.
“But it just doesn’t look like it’s coming at the minute.
“But it’s frustrating to concede and not get something out of the game when I thought we definitely did deserve something.
“That’s just the way it goes, I guess”.
