ANTHONY Stokes was last night urged to leave Celtic in the January transfer window to increase his chances of being involved with the Republic of Ireland at the Euro 2016 finals in France next summer.
Stokes has been suspended by the Scottish champions for a fortnight after posting about his unhappiness at not being in the match day squad on social networking website Twitter on Sunday.
He had to sit in the stands during the Ladbrokes Premiership match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Highlands after being overlooked by manager Ronny Deila.
The 27-year-old now hasn’t been involved in a first team game with the Parkhead club since he started against Dundee United at Tannadice on August 22.
However, the nine-times capped player was called up by Ireland manager Martin O’Neill for the Euro 2016 play-off double header against Bosnia and Herzegovina last month.
His surprise inclusion in his national squad – despite his lack of game time with Celtic during the 2015/16 campaign – has raised the prospect of him joining his countrymen at the Euro 2016 finals.
However, Tony Cascarino, the former Celtic and Republic of Ireland striker, believes Stokes has to play and score regularly in the second half of the 2015/16 campaign in order to remain involved.
Several English Championship clubs, including Cardiff City, are believed to be interested in securing the services of the unsettled forward, either on loan or in a permanent deal, next month.
Cascarino, who represented his adopted homeland at the European Championships in 1988 as well as in the World Cup in 1990 and 1994, has told his compatriot he has to move on.
“He needs to go out and play somewhere if he is to stand any chance of being part of the Republic of Ireland set-up at Euro 2016,” he said.
“At the moment, he has got no chance of getting a game. But if he can get a run of matches somewhere and score some goals that could easily change. He has to be playing football though.
“Sure, he hasn’t been playing at Celtic this season, but Anthony is just 27 which is still young enough to resurrect his career. He can still play at a decent level. He is having a tough time just now, but he can still do a good job for somebody.
“I have followed Anthony’s career and he has had some real highs and some real lows as well. He is going through a difficult spell at the moment. It’s hard for the manager to say where he is at the moment and put his faith in him.
“Yes, he was in the Ireland squad for the play-off double header, but, as things stand just now, he won’t get anywhere near the Ireland side. I think he only got into squad last time around because of circumstances.
“Jon Walters was suspended for the first game, Shane Long had a bit of an injury and on top of that Robbie Keane is approaching the end of his career. But Daryl Murphy of Ipswich got in the team up front in both games.
“Anthony hasn’t scored for quite a while (he last netted in a 4-1 win over St. Mirren at Celtic Park last December) so there is no way the manager is going to play him ahead of somebody who is involved regularly at club level. He has to move on, get a game and start scoring goals again.”
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