Injuries hamper Passmore's plans

Men's Hockey:The most the Irish men's team can hope for this week in the European Championships at Manchester is to finish in the top three in their Pool B behind the Spanish and Dutch.

Anything more than that would constitute the best any Irish side has ever done in this competition and would put them into a possible medal situation.

That Ireland are back up with several of the top teams in the world is also a quantum leap for them. For the past number of years, the side have competed in the lower end of the European divisions. So, this is quite a challenge. In tandem coach Dave Passmore has had to deal with a few sudden injuries close to the tournament, which begins tomorrow for the men.

"Obviously the injury to Tim Lewis, which followed the loss of Jason Black (for personal reasons) was far from ideal as they both play important roles in attacking and defensive corners as well as being back line players," said Passmore. "However, we have developed a larger squad to overcome these situations and have used most of our players in a variety of positions. Who plays in the back line will depend on the opposition, but we have several options," he added.

Ranked 19 in the world, Ireland will have a tough test in their first outing against the third highest ranked team in the world, Spain, before facing fourth-ranked Netherlands on Tuesday. In the unlikely event of winning either match, Ireland would face Germany, ranked one in the world, or England, ranked 10th. The likelihood is Ireland or France will battle for third place in the pool and then go into the classification matches with Belgium and Czech Republic in pool A.

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (at Manchester): Sunday: Ireland v Spain, 2pm; Tuesday: Ireland v Netherlands, 11am; Wednesday: Ireland v France, 1pm; Friday: Classification and semi-finals; Sunday: Classification and medal matches.