Kelly forced out of the squad

After losing a third player from his original squad of 22 for the forthcoming World Cup qualifying matches against Portugal and Estonia, Mick McCarthy made the first additions to his panel yesterday.

McCarthy has decided to call up one old reliable and one uncapped 27-year-old (for whom the good news marked another chapter in a remarkable footballing comeback story).

The bad news for McCarthy came yesterday morning when it was announced that Leeds United full back Gary Kelly had picked up a groin strain in Saturday's 4-3 defeat of Tottenham. The Drogheda born defender will miss both of the Republic's international games.

Kelly's withdrawal is a blow for the Irish coach. The 26-year-old has been one of the Republic's most consistent performers, regardless of whether he has been playing at right back or wide in midfield.

In Saturday's premiership match he performed strongly for David O'Leary's side and was involved in a couple of his side's goals.

Despite his strong recent club form, however, Kelly lost out to Stephen Carr and Jason McAteer in Amsterdam last month and, having played disappointingly when he was eventually brought on for the Blackburn midfielder 15 minutes from time, it would have been a major surprise had McCarthy promoted him to his starting line up for Saturday's game in Lisbon.

In his place the Ireland manager has called up Middlesbrough defender Curtis Fleming, the former St Patrick's Athletic man who will celebrate his 32nd birthday the day after the Portugal game.

Fleming has earned 10 caps over the years, but hasn't appeared in an Irish shirt for more than two years now.

At the Riverside Stadium he has again kept his place in Bryan Robson's starting 11 in spite of another hectic summer of comings and goings and it is the fact that he continues to play week in week out at such a high level that makes him a safe choice as cover for Carr.

More remarkable is McCarthy's decision to call Hibernian goalkeeper Nicky Colgan into an Irish panel for the very first time. It is a marvellous achievement for the 27-year-old from Drogheda who, only two years ago, had to be persuaded by members of his family not to give up the game entirely.

Colgan, a former under-21 international, joined Chelsea as a teenager but made only one appearance for the London club in almost five years at Stamford Bridge. During that time he had loan spells at a number of clubs including Crewe, Grimsby and Millwall but returned each time without having had a run-out in the first team.

When he was finally given his chance during another loan at Reading, things went badly and a permanent move to Bournemouth then turned sour when, having been promised first-team football, he was again left on the sidelines.

During the summer of last year, though, after being urged by his wife and late father to give his professional career one last try, he joined the Scottish premier division side who signed him on the recommendation of Chelsea's goalkeeping coach Eddie Niedzwiecki.

Within weeks of arriving at Easter Road he had made the goalkeeper's jersey his own and this season, with a strengthened defence in front of him, his form has been outstanding. In his 10 league games so far in this campaign he has conceded just five goals - three better than the division's next tightest defence, at Celtic.

"It's a huge thrill," said a delighted Colgan last night after having been informed of the news by his club which had received a fax from the FAI requesting that he report for training in Dublin this afternoon.

"It's a bit of a relief too," he added, "because a lot of people have been ringing me up over the past couple of days to congratulate me, but I hadn't heard anything official. Now that I've heard, though, it's fantastic. It's every young footballer's dream to be selected for his country and now that it's finally happened for me I can hardly believe it."

Colgan is under no illusions about his prospects of actually playing over the next week. "Whatever happens with Alan Kelly I'll be understudy to Dean Kiely who has done really well at Charlton again this season, but just to be involved is a dream come through."

The decision by McCarthy to draft in Fleming and Colgan, meanwhile, still leaves one place to be filled in the squad of 22 and the Ireland manager may well move to fill the remaining vacancy over the course of today with Leeds United midfielder Stephen McPhail the most likely candidate for a place in Thursday's travelling party.

When McCarthy included Lee Carsley ahead of the young Dubliner in his original panel last week there had been some lingering doubts about the midfielder who made his senior international debut against Scotland in May.

Having come through almost an hour of Saturday's game against Tottenham as a result of an injury to Olivier Dacourt, however, he now appears to be most obvious replacement for Carsley who withdrew from the squad over the weekend with a rib injury.