Aaron Connolly says he's been frustrated by some of the reaction to his missing of the Euro 2020 playoff with Slovakia.
The Brighton striker had been part of Stephen Kenny's plans for the game in Bratislava, but was stood down just before kick-off.
Connolly - along with Adam Idah - was adjudged to have been a close contact of an FAI staff member that tested positive for COVID-19. That staff member subsequently tested negative.
Connolly and Idah sat in the back row of the plane in seats that were not allocated to them. Those back-row seats were within 2-metres of the staff member.
Some dark and dingy corners of the internet have blamed the 20-year old for moving seats, and bringing himself inside that crucial 2-metre mark.
But the Galwegian does not see it that way, "It's frustrating when people say that, because I might have left the seat, but I didn't know I was going to go and sit beside someone who had a positive test.
"I could've stayed in my seat and someone beside me could've had it. And I would've got away with it because I'd moved down the back.
"To see stuff like that, it's frustrating, even on social media because I moved seat but how was I meant to know where someone who had tested positive would be sat?
"I don't look back on it and think 'I wish I'd sat there'; it happened so I've got to move on from it now."
Connolly's also enduring a frustrating season at club level.
He's scored just once for Brighton, and has been in and out of Graham Potter's side in recent weeks.
"I'm just trying to work hard and just keep the head down and then hopefully [when] my chance does come to play again that I'm definitely ready," Connolly said on Monday.
"Everyone needs minutes to progress, no matter what age - whether I'm 20 or 35.
Yeah, it's frustrating at the minute, but hopefully I can get some game time this week and get some minutes under my belt, and if I do get the chance to play when I go back to Brighton then of course I'll be ready."
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