Soccer:Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni was discharged from the Mater hospital today after the Italian had surgery on his stomach last week, but his assistant Marco Tardelli will name the senior squad on Friday ahead of the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Armenia and Andorra.
Trapattoni had surgery last Wednesday to relieve abdominal pain and missed Ireland’s first international match against Argentina at the new Aviva Stadium when they lost 1-0.
The 71-year-old was kept in hospital over the weekend but was discharged this this morning. The Italian expressed his “sincere thanks to the staff for their excellent care”.
Tardelli will make the squad announcement at Ferrycarrig Park in Wexford on Friday ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifying double-header against Armenia in Yerevan on Friday, September 3rd before hosting Andorra at the Aviva Stadium the following Tuesday (7th).
Last week FAI chief executive John Delaney insisted Trapattoni would be fit enough to make the seven hour trip from Dublin to Armenia and to take charge of team affairs for both qualifiers.
“There is no question at this stage that he won’t be with us for Armenia and Andorra. It is just recuperation as he is 71 years of age,” said Delaney.
Trapattoni was initially believed to be suffering from a severe bout of food poisoning that resulted in his hospitalisation in the early hours of last Tuesday morning but further tests revealed the problem was linked to scar tissue from a previous operation.
After consulting with the surgeon, a decision was taken to perform minor surgery in order to ease the pain.