Mick McCarthy's midfield options were reduced yesterday after he lost Lee Carsley for Saturday's European Championship game against Macedonia in Skopje.

Carsley eventually conceded in an increasingly futile battle to recover in time from the foot injury which had made him an uncertain starter, ever since Blackburn's meeting with QPR last Saturday.

He played in that game with the assistance of a pain-killing injection and sadly he aggravated the injury in the closing stages. Now with his foot badly swollen, there was never much likelihood that he would be cleared to play in Macedonia.

Essentially, a squad player when Roy Keane is fit, Carsley has been pressed more and more into service since Keane's good fortune began to ebb in May. In the wake of the Manchester United player's on going fitness problems, the unpretentious Blackburn man found himself promoted to a key role in the team.

McCarthy's problem is that with no specialist anchor player left in the side, certainly not an experienced one, he faces real problems in the challenge of balancing out his midfield line.

Matt Holland of Ipswich is a box to box player who presumably, could do a useful job in an emergency. Given the importance of the game, however, it would require a giant leap in faith by McCarthy to go with a relative novice on Saturday.

Inevitably, Carsley's injury has brought Alan McLoughlin's name back into the frame and hinted at another climb in the switchback career of a player who, in spite of a nine-year involvement with the national squad, has never really established himself as an indispensable member of the team.

McCarthy did nothing to dampen speculation that the Portsmouth player will be assigned the job of complementing Mark Kinsella when he spoke of his fine record on those occasions on which he was summoned to action.

"Alan's a good international player who's never let Ireland down," he said.

"He did a big job for us in Belgrade last year and I thought he had another good game on a very difficult evening for everybody in Zagreb a few weeks ago.

"I seem to remember him being named Ireland's Player of the Year a couple of seasons ago and I, for one, thought it was a well deserved honour for a lad who has shown enormous commitment to the team, in coming over, game after game, with no guarantee of getting a start.

"That's a huge plus for any player and when you add it to the kind of skills he's shown on those occasions when he got into the side, you have a valued member of the squad."

For many, a partnership of Kinsella and McLoughlin, players who are happiest when going forward, would not meet the requirements for a balanced midfield formation but it's not a line which the manager is prepared to accept.

"Both Alan and Mark are good attacking players but that doesn't mean they can't perform the other basics of a midfielder's job," he said. "They both get around the pitch a bit and neither is afraid to put his foot in for the ball."

Later McCarthy acknowledged the importance of balancing out the middle line but this was primarily in the context of the ongoing loss of Jason McAteer on the right side of midfield. Mark Kennedy, a naturally left footed player, was shunted into the vacancy for four of Ireland's last five games, doing well enough to trouble the opposition but contributing little to the balance of the side.

Now, the expectation is that Kennedy will move to the opposite flank to challenge for the position which Kevin Kilbane has held of late, leaving the way open for Gary Kelly to return on the right.

Kelly has started only one international game since returning from the injury crisis which kept him out of football for all of last season. And that was down primarily, to the fact that McCarthy chose to rest a number of established players for the game in Croatia.

Now, after winning his protracted fight for fitness and regaining a first team place at Elland Road, he may be ready to resume where he left off at the end of the 1997/98 season and re-establish himself at the heart of McCarthy's plans.

"We've lacked a bit of balance since losing Jason and one of the ways of redressing that situation, may be to look again at Gary Kelly," said McCarthy. "I thought he played well in the game in Croatia and is obviously, back in favour at Leeds. He is definitely, an option."

Mark Kennedy is one of the players featured in the Soccer Show which returns to the screen on Network 2 at 7 p.m. this evening. There is also a lively debate on the merits of National League clubs continuing to take part in European competition with contributions from Liam Buckley, Dave Barry and Martin Lawlor.