When asked if the assistant manager’s words were a strong reminder to keep standards high, Coleman said: “I don’t think Roy Keane should have to say that to any of us.

“As professional footballers we should know to keep our standards up at all times, and that’s coming from Roy.

“But if all footballers in the squad don’t know that, then there’s something wrong.”

When talking about the likes of Coleman, Keane lauded his exemplary motivation in training.

“They need to push themselves – that doesn’t come from the coaches,” said Keane. “That comes from good players, good pros.

“The Glen Whelans, the Jon Walters, the Seamus Colemans – I didn’t have to push any of them.”

The week spent in Cork comes to an end today, with the squad due to travel to Dublin this afternoon. They will return to training on Monday, after a weekend off.

Robbie Keane did some individual ball work for the first time in the week since he injured his calf and he was also seen cycling around the training pitch with team physio Tony McCarthy.

Jon Walters, who also took a knock to his calf, didn’t take part in training for a second successive day. However, James McCarthy trained with his teammates as he approaches full fitness after a thigh injury.

The week of warm-weather training in Fota Island Resort has been a productive one and helped the team to park the loss to Belarus, ranked 78th in the updated World Rankings.

“I’m sure the manager has been waiting hard to get us on the training pitch to what he wants us to do for the coming games,” said Coleman.

“The game against Belarus wasn’t the way we wanted it to go but (we’d) rather it happened now than next week.

“We’re all working hard on the training ground making sure things are right and we’re ready to go.”

For his part, Coleman isn’t letting the realisation of a lifelong dream distract him from the “job” at hand.

“I couldn’t wait to – hopefully – get to a major tournament with my country and we’ve done that.

“This time last year it looked like it was going to be a hard task after the Scotland game but we dug deep, we played well over the last couple of games and thankfully we got through against Bosnia.

“Since that game we’ve enjoyed the excitement and all looked forward to it. Now that it’s getting close, we’re here to do a job.”

“It’s all got a bit real.

“It wasn’t a nice night after the 23 got named. But when we met up the next day, we knew that was it and it was time for work.

“We’re all looking forward to it.”