EURO 2012:THE SLOWER-than-expected return to fitness of Richard Dunne was the most pressing matter on the mind of Republic of Ireland assistant coach Marco Tardelli yesterday.
Speaking to reporters at the Aviva Stadium, Tardelli even raised the prospect of delaying the Euro 2012 squad announcement from the originally planned date of May 7th, depending on how certain players heal over the closing weeks of the English season.
“We don’t know at this moment because we have many injured players,” said Tardelli.
“I think it’s possible to change some things. It’s possible also to change the date. We want to wait on our players because they deserve to stay with us. We wait and I think we will speak with Giovanni and we know after one week if it is possible to do the squad or not.
“At the moment, (the biggest concern) is Richard Dunne. Richard Dunne is very important for us. We have a problem with Stephen Hunt, and (Keith) Fahey is out. Stephen Kelly is out. But I think the important problem at this moment is Richard Dunne because I think it is possible for the other players to recover very quickly.”
Dunne’s putative return date has been pushed back a couple of times since he broke his collar bone in a clash with Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart in February.
The original prognosis was he would be back in Aston Villa’s first team around about this weekend but when he didn’t respond to early treatment, it became clear it was unlikely that he’d play again before the end of the season.
He has since been to visit the medical staff at the Cleveland Browns, Villa owner Randy Lerner’s NFL team, to get further treatment. Tardelli would obviously have liked it cleared up by now and can’t do much more than cross all fingers and toes in the hope that Dunne will recover in time. One thing he appeared to definitively rule out yesterday was the idea of bringing the centre-back to the Euros if he was less than fully fit.
“If he is injured, is it possible for him to stay in the squad, no? Definitely not,” said Tardelli. “I think in two weeks everything will be okay. I spoke with him and we hope he will be ready on May 17th (the date the squad meets up).”
Tardelli said he and Giovanni Trapattoni speak every day about the squad they are going to pick. If there’s an upside to the mini-raft of injuries that have hit at just the wrong time, it’s that it will make picking the final 23 an easier task than it was before.
If Hunt and Fahey struggle to make it in time, for instance, there’s unlikely to be much hand-wringing over whether James McCarthy and James McClean go on the plane.
Tardelli has been to see both of them play recently, as well as Séamus Coleman. Of the three, McCarthy is having the strongest end to his season as the fulcrum of the Wigan midfield that has been so good in recent wins over Manchester United and Arsenal.
McClean and Coleman haven’t quite kissed the sky in recent times like they had before – indeed Coleman had a chastening weekend when publicly admonished by David Moyes for giving away the free-kick that led to Liverpool’s winner in the FA Cup semi-final. But Tardelli isn’t unduly worried on either score.
“McCarthy we know. We know he’s a good player and now he grows because he’s playing with a bigger personality. I think now he is physically very good, very fit and I think whether in the Euros or in the future, he will be a very good player for us.
“McClean is a new player for us and he’s played very well all season. But I saw his last two matches and it’s true that sometimes you can play well and sometimes not. With young players, they can sometimes play two matches well and one match bad.
“Coleman is a definite for the squad of 30. Not definitely in the 23 but definitely in the 30. I think he made a mistake for the free kick when Liverpool scored the goal. His manager was angry because the goal came from it.”
