Fighting talk as Portsmouth's Ronan Curtis prepares to do battle with Republic of Ireland team-mate Alan Judge against Ipswich

But Ronan Curtis insists he won’t be shirking out of any challenges when he does battle with international team-mate Alan Judge.

The Pompey winger will come up against the Ipswich midfielder in tomorrow’s crunch League One clash at Fratton Park.

The pair recently played alongside each other in a 3-1 friendly win for the Irish over Bulgaria in September.

Curtis has been capped three times for Eire, although he was omitted from their squad for last month’s internationals against New Zealand and Denmark.

He’s aiming to win his berth back in Mick McCarthy’s side’s for their play-off semi-final against Slovakia in March – a set-up Judge will likely be involved in, too.

First, though, they must go head-to-head and put on club before country.

That’s a mindset Curtis – who’s bagged five goals in his past six games – firmly has leading into the PO4 encounter.

The former Derry man knows Judge will be the same and that’s why both players will go hard into tackles.

Curtis said: ‘It’ll be my first-ever time coming up against him because I’ve played with him a few times.

‘Now I’m coming up against him, it’ll be a good test for us and myself.

‘He is a good lad, Judgey. I haven’t really spoken to him, to be fair, but we know on the pitch there are going to be some tough battles going on.

‘After the game, I’ll speak to him, say hello and see how he’s doing. But in the game, if I have to make a challenge then I will.

‘You’ve got to think of yourself and he is going to think of himself. He'll think of himself going in hard and I’ll think of myself going in hard.

‘After the game, we’ll shake hands and say fair play. It is a battle on the pitch but then after you’ll be okay. It is going to be good.’

Curtis has netted eight goals in 22 appearances for Pompey this season.