West Ham midfielder Declan Rice has been named the Football Association of Ireland’s Young International Player of the Year, despite switching allegiance to England.
The 20-year-old, who made three senior appearances for Ireland, all in friendlies, before announcing last month that he had decided he wanted to represent England going forward.
Rice’s association change has now been processed by Fifa, and the midfielder is free to be named in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for this month’s European qualifiers, which is announced on Wednesday.
An FAI statement read: "At the time of the vote, Declan Rice was an Ireland international and qualified for the Young Player category in a year that saw him win three senior caps, all in '3' International Friendly games.
"Declan Rice has since opted to switch his allegiance to England. The FAI has completed his international transfer via the FIFA protocols and wishes him well in the future.
"This award maintains the integrity of the voting process in conjunction with the Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland and the FAI thanks the jury members for their decisions relating to the awards.
"Declan Rice will not be in Dublin for the '3' FAI International Awards ceremony."
