Mick McCarthy reckons man mountain Shane Duffy is already at the peak of his powers.
But he understands why Ireland’s green giant may not be on the radar of the Premier League’s top clubs.
Duffy was crowned ‘Player of the Season’ at Brighton who just scrapped survival with a fourth-from-bottom finish.
But dominant performances for Ireland and his remarkable aerial ability continue to put him on the map.
His partner-in-crime Richard Keogh claims there is not a better header of the ball in the game - and hailed Duffy as the best he has ever seen.
Denmark star Thomas Delaney was crushed when Duffy slammed home an Irish equaliser in Copenhagen on Friday.
He said: “You have to hand it to Duffy, when he gets in that area and the ball is there, there’s nothing anyone can do.”
Asked if Duffy could play at a higher level, McCarthy said: “I wonder how many goals they conceded this year, Brighton.
“They mightn't have been looking at him. He could play in a team, but it depends what they want him to do.
“If they want him to get it on the 18-yard box, pass to the goalkeeper, roll it to the next one and have 28 passes before it comes out, then no - and he’ll admit to that.
“If I want him to defend and put his head on things and block things and stop things and keep it out of our net, he's brilliant at that.
“He's a wonderful, wonderful centre half for us and he's a good Premier League centre half.
“I don't think he's becoming (a top defender) - he has become. He's just a really good Premier League centre half which is a compliment in itself.
“In both boxes he's fabulous and he’s pretty much unplayable if we get the delivery in, get the run right, the movement right and the ball right, he's very difficult to stop.”
Duffy’s no-nonsense approach in the Danish capital was in stark contrast to England’s John Stones in their Nations League semi-final defeat to Holland.
Stones dawdled on the ball on the edge of his own box and was caught cold by the Dutch who scored to flip the tie.
McCarthy reckons Duffy would never get caught napping like that as clearing the danger is ingrained in him.
“He’s not that type of player. I'm cool with passing it out from the back but if you give goals away you're wrong,” he said.
“If you take a chance and give it away, you're wrong. I wouldn't ask him to do it and he wouldn't want to do it and he's better for it.
“He does what he's good at and I know more than anybody else stood here that if you do what you're good at you can have a really good career at international level.
“If you start trying to be something that you're not, it can prove to be difficult.”
While Duffy grabbed the headlines for his goal scoring antics, he also prevented one when robbing the ball off Christian Eriksen’s toes.
On the edge of the box, the Tottenham star was shaping to shoot and also had options outside of him.
A younger Duffy might have lunged in, but the emerging talisman of this Irish team kept his cool.
“You get that as you get older,” said McCarthy, himself a former Irish centre-half and captain.
“You stop trying to win every ball and stop trying to compete for everything and you're a little bit more composed. I’ll take him as a great defender.”
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