McGeehan hits back at Irish FA ban

The 20-year-old, who had represented the country at U17, U19 and U21 level previously, informed the Irish FA he was pulling out of their U21s squad for matches against Iceland and Scotland.

However, because his decision came in what was deemed as competition time, the Northern Irish FA invoked a FIFA ruling that saw McGeehan suspended for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy game against Leyton Orient, plus the trip to Cambridge United.

Speaking exclusively to the News/Gazette, McGeehan said: “I was really disappointed with how it happened.

“Initially I spoke to Michael O’Neill (Northern Ireland boss) in depth and we had a really positive chat.

“I said to him, ‘I want to stay at Luton and play games. This is the club I play for, I’m doing well, I want to stay in the team.’

“If I was getting called up for the first team then I would probably have a decision to make, but it was the 21s.

“So I spoke to the manager about that and said I don’t want to play for your 21s team, I’ll be better off playing well for Luton and scoring goals for Luton in order to get into for arguments sake, your first team.

“His words to me were ‘I understand your reasons are genuine, I’m disappointed but I understand it’.

“So I thought we had an agreement where I wanted to play for Luton and eventually maybe I’ll get a call up to the Northern Ireland first team.

“But how they handled the whole scenario, I have now informed the Irish FA that I don’t wish to be selected going forwards.”