Alan Judge has handed Ipswich Town a potential boost in their bid to extend the Irishman's contract at Portman Road, despite the club's seemingly imminent relegation to League One, after he revealed he doesn't think that would impact his chances of being called up to the Republic of Ireland national team.

Judge, who arrived on a short term contract until the end of the season from Brentford in January, has made eleven appearances for Paul Lambert's side since arriving at Portman Road, and is unconcerned about the possible consequences of relegation on his international prospects following the re-appointment of Mick McCarthy as Republic of Ireland manager.

When asked by The East Anglian Daily Times whether he thought League One football with Ipswich next season would end his international career, he quickly replied: "no."

The midfielder went onto explain: “I know Mick likes me. Somehow or other we’ve always just about evaded each other, for whatever reason, so I’ve been really looking forward to working with him finally.”

Judge was an unused substitute in McCarthy's first game back as Ireland manager, a 1-0 win away to Gibraltar in a Euro 2020 qualifier on Saturday and Judge, who has five Ireland caps and one goal to his name added: "Getting back in the Ireland squad was one of my aims when I came here, to show that I could still do it”.

The midfielder has the option of a further twelve months on his Portman Road contract, though a decision on whether that will be taken up has yet to be made.

The verdict

As many players before him have shown, there is no reason why a drop into League One should hamper Judge's chances of an international call up.

That Judge is aware and open minded to that should be welcome news to those around Portman Road, with a large number of the current squad's contracts all set to expire at the end of the season.