Harry Arter exited a cinema three years ago, turned on his phone and wondered if he had made a social media blunder.
Instead, Twitter was hopping in reaction to rumours that London-born Arter was poised to switch allegiances to England.
"I was getting absolutely hammered for it," he recalled. "There were about 1,000 notifications on my phone. I was going, 'What's going on here, have I tweeted something by accident?'."
His recollection follows Declan Rice's decision to declare for England after playing in three senior Ireland internationals.
Rice was eligible to do so because all three were friendlies rather than competitive games and Arter insists that's the real problem.
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"I was disappointed, yes, most definitely," said the midfielder. "Surprised? Initially yes, but the longer the months went on without Declan making a decision, it became pretty obvious what the outcome would be.
"Declan's a great lad. He's someone that I've known for quite a while and got a lot of respect for.
"He's a young lad who loves playing football, loved playing for Ireland. It was something he was very proud doing. I know his family were very proud of him, and that decision wasn’t easy for him.
"I know everyone's disappointed - of course they are. But it’s more the ruling that everyone should be disappointed with, rather than Declan’s decision.
"I personally don’t think he should have been in that position. If you make appearance for the national side, then that’s it - competitive or not.
"He’s half English, half Irish. He was genuinely torn.
"England would have wanted him at U19 and U21 and as an U19, he definitely would have been picked for them.
"At the time he wanted to play for Ireland. His Dad is probably very disappointed but I don’t think it's something you can judge Declan on as a person.
"My one problem is the rule. It should be changed - take that responsibility out of young player’s hands.
"If they play for international team in a friendly, then they’ve made their decision".
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