Among the names likely to occupy the attention of Mick McCarthy this week as he formulates plans for next month's double European Championship programme against Yugoslavia and Malta is that of David Connolly.

As a result of a sending-off in the World Cup play-off in Brussels last December, Connolly is ineligible for a difficult assignment in Belgrade on December 10th. He is available, however, for the meeting with Malta at Lansdowne Road four days later and his international career in the short term may hinge on McCarthy's willingness to deploy him in that game.

So far, it has been a difficult year for the player whose arrival in the national team within three months of the change in management was interpreted as conclusive evidence of the new man's resolve to restructure the side from the bottom up.

Connolly's subsequent move from Watford to Feyenoord appeared to quicken the pace of a fine career in the making. As it transpired, it merely accentuated some of the problems which had surfaced in the closing phase of his career at Vicarage Road when he occasionally appeared to be embroiled in a crisis of confidence.

Nor has his rehabiltation in English club football been wholly reassuring after his failure to establish himself in a Wolves attack still dominated by his younger Ireland teammate Robbie Keane.

And yet for all the difficulties in readjustment, the preliminary evidence is that McCarthy, still enthused by the success of Connolly's partnership with Keith O'Neill in the United States two years ago, is ready to recall him.

Significantly, he has had the player watched on two occasions in recent weeks and although Connolly's role in each instance was truncated, the reports coming back were encouraging.

That's a viewpoint endorsed by Wolves manager Mark McGhee, one of McCarthy's old team-mates at Celtic, even if it begs the question of why the player hasn't yet succeeded in holding down a regular first-team place at the club.

Connolly's attempt to get back to where he was is given added urgency by renewed doubts about O'Neill whose continued absence from the Norwich team fits an unfortunate pattern for this talented player.

Although the injury which occasioned his abrupt departure from the Croatian game was said to be unrelated to his earlier problems, it is mildly disturbing that he hasn't yet made a full recovery.

With the next Ireland squad selection not due for another eight days, there is still time of course for the Norwich striker to prove his fitness. For player and manager alike, the vigil will be an anxious one.

Fortunately for McCarthy, Niall Quinn's surprisingly quick recovery from a back injury broadens his front-line options at a time when he has justifiable cause for concern. Originally, Quinn had targeted a reserve team game today for his comeback, but after an unexpected call from Peter Reid last Friday, he got on for the last 11 minutes of Sunderland's game against Oxford United the following day.

"That was a pleasant surprise, although the game showed that it's not going to be easy to get back into the first XI," he said. "It means, however, that I will have at least some match practice before the Ireland squad is named."