Kevin Nolan jokes talkSPORT’s Tony Cascarino ‘mucked it all up’ in his bid to play for the Republic of Ireland

West Ham legend Kevin Nolan has hilariously claimed he couldn’t play for the Republic of Ireland because of talkSPORT’s Tony Cascarino.

The former Bolton, Newcastle and West Ham midfielder featured for England at youth level but never made a senior appearance for his country.

Cascarino scored 19 goals in 90 appearances as an Ireland internationalGetty

Nolan wasn’t eligible to play for Ireland but has more Irish roots than Cascarinogetty

Nolan held the record for the most Premier League appearances without a Three Lions cap with 401, although Mark Noble llater overtook him with 414.

Due to his ancestry, reports claimed that the Hammers coach could have played for Ireland or the Netherlands instead.

However, neither of these call-ups would have been able to happen, with Nolan jokingly suggesting Cascarino is to blame for him not joining the former.

Cascarino played for Ireland as his adoptive grandfather was Irish, although he later admitted in his autobiography that he was a ‘fake Irishman’, after his mother told him he was adopted.

The Football Association of Ireland later said they were ‘satisfied’ with his eligibility, with Nolan exclusively telling talkSPORT: “I spoke to a couple of the Ireland managers, Brian Kerr and Steve Staunton, they were desperate for me to go to Ireland.

“At the time I was sort of really hesitant but with what they had said I thought, ‘You know what, yeah I fancy it if you could get me a passport.’

“It’s my Great Grandad again on both sides, so maybe that could work as sort of not being just my Gran or my Grandad being fully Irish.

“But no, I think it was Casc who actually… he mucked it all up didn’t he? He mucked it all up because I think from his book, that’s when it all got changed.”

Cascarino claimed he was a ‘fake Irishman’ after finding out he was adoptedGetty

Andy Goldstein then said Cascarino wasn’t Irish at all, before Nolan joked that Cascarino ‘just went to Ireland, had a drink of Guinness.’

“It was one generation too far,” Nolan said when explaining why he was unable to represent Ireland at international level.

“Although I thought because both sides, my Mum’s side and my Dad’s side, I thought that we could have made it happen but no, they refused it.”

Nolan also addressed the claims that he could have played for the Netherlands: “No, I couldn’t have.

“But I have got Dutch relations and I was rang up by the Dutch FA, and I was well up for it and realised that I couldn’t because it was my Nan’s Dad who was Dutch. [I couldn’t play] because it was only one generation.”

Nolan was never capped at international level despite his qualityGetty