SOCCER: As the Irish players involved in yesterday's big Premiership games came through without any apparent problems, it appeared that Roy Keane was the only casualty of the weekend's club programme ahead of Wednesday's game against Portugal in Lansdowne Road.
Keane was said by Manchester United to have received a painkilling injection before the club's defeat of Birmingham City on Saturday, a game in which the Corkman scored his side's opening goal and again performed strongly.
Afterwards Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said he did not want to put a "strain" on Keane and observed that: "It is not wise for him to play (on Wednesday). He needs a break."
Given the importance of the coming weeks for United as the club tries to further reduce Chelsea's lead at the top of the table and also face AC Milan in the second round of the Champions League, the loss of Keane for Wednesday night will not come an a huge surprise to anybody in the Irish camp despite Brian Kerr's previous assertion that the midfielder was anxious to travel to Dublin for the game.
In the absence of any other withdrawals it will still leave the Ireland manager with a considerable number of options as he prepares for the game with Damien Duff, Richard Dunne and Kevin Kilbane all expected to train today after coming through games yesterday.
Duff and Dunne, the latter of whom turned in a particularly strong performance for City at Stamford Bridge yesterday, both played 90 minutes of the goalless draw between Chelsea and Manchester City while Kilbane was replaced half an hour from the end of Everton's hard fought 2-2 draw at Southampton, but was not reported last night to have picked up any significant injury in the game.
The midfielder, who turned 28 last week, was last night named as the eircom/FAI senior international player of the year at an awards ceremony held at Citywest in Dublin. The former West Brom and Sunderland man beat off competition from Shay Given and Robbie Keane to lift the prize.
Kilbane started eight of the Republic's games last year, including all four of the World Cup qualifiers from which the Irish emerged unbeaten. Played in the central midfield role he has grown increasingly accustomed to over the past season and a half at Everton, he was one of the side's most consistently strong performers, emerging with particular credit from Basle and, most memorably, Paris. He is expected to win his 60th cap against the Portuguese.
As was widely expected Andy Reid, who completed his move from Nottingham Forest to Tottenham Hotspur last week, was named as the young player of the year. The Dubliner will long remember 2004, having played in all but two of the Republic's 13 matches and scored twice for his country.
Martin O'Neill, who got the International Personality award, admitted that he would be tempted by the prospect of a crack at international management at some point, although he said it is not something he is entirely sure he would take to: "At the moment there is somebody doing the job with the Republic and doing it very well but if the position was to be on offer at some stage in the future it is definitely something that I would seriously think about.
"I often watch the big international tournaments and wonder what it would be like to be involved, although I'm not quite sure how I would cope with the idea of having six months between games."
Asked about young Celtic striker Aiden McGeady, the former Northern Ireland international was enthusiastic: "From the time I saw him as a 16-year-old playing in an under-18 game I felt he was good and it certainly hasn't taken him long to grow into the seat of his pants.
"He'll be a great player all right but he'll have to be patient about it. He's the sort of lad who probably thought he should be in the first team when he was 12, but a confident young player with a little bit of arrogance about him isn't really such a bad thing."
INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNERS
Senior: Kevin Kilbane (Everton); Young player: Andy Reid (Tottenham); Under-21: Glenn Whelan (Sheffield Wednesday); Eircom League: Owen Heary (Shelbourne); Under-19: Willo Flood (Manchester City); Under-17: Darren Randolph (Charlton Athletic); Under-16: Keith Treacy (Blackburn Rovers); Schools: Darren Quigley (St Lawrences/UCD); Intermediate: Ian Callaghan (Wayside Celtic); Junior: James Walsh (St Michael's FC); Women's senior: Elaine O'Connor (Hofstra, New York); Under-19: Katie Taylor (St James' Gate); Football for All: Rita Doherty (Special Olympics Ireland); Goal of the Year: Robbie Keane (v the Netherlands); International Personality: Martin O'Neill (Celtic); Special Merit: Vinnie Butler (Ireland under-15 and 16 manager); Hall of Fame: Gerry Daly.
