Kerr faces club clash over Duff and Keane call-ups

Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr faces the prospect of further clashes with a couple of England's biggest clubs after naming senior internationals Damien Duff and Robbie Keane in his squad for this month's under-18 European championship finals in Cyprus.

Both players have been withdrawn by their clubs from underage squads over the past year on the grounds of injury and Kerr admitted yesterday that he is not entirely sure whether he will have the pair with him on the plane when the squad leaves for Ayia Napa next Tuesday.

"There's always a lot going on behind the scenes in situations like this and it's difficult to know how it's going to turn out, but as far as I know they are fit to start pre-season and I can't see any reason why they shouldn't travel to these championships with us," said Kerr.

The former St Patrick's Athletic coach attended a coaching conference in France last week where Blackburn Rovers boss Roy Hodgson spoke on the growing conflict between club and international managers.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to him about this problem there," said Kerr, "but he spoke to about 200 people about this sort of thing and he was very good.

"Basically, club managers want their players to be internationals without actually playing any games. If they do have to play, they'd prefer that the games were in the middle of Sunday nights in the middle of the off-season. It's a pity, but unfortunately that's the reality of the situation," said Kerr.

The Irish coach, who will be hoping to extend the remarkable run of success that he has enjoyed at international tournaments since taking up his current position, says that he is anxious that every player selected should travel. "It's our policy here that we try to put out our strongest team for every game we take part in," he said.

However, Kerr added: "While it would be great to have them, if we don't we have plenty of other lads who are keen to get into the squad."

Amongst those who are expected to travel, there is plenty of experience. Several players, such as Everton's Richard Dunne and Stephen McPhail have already made appearances in the English Premiership, while Coventry's Barry Quinn, Gary Doherty of Luton and Huddersfield's Thomas Heary were all in the squad that finished fourth in last year's championships in Iceland.

Kerr hopes that that can be improved upon this time around but knows that, because of the structure of the competition, a good start is essential if the team is to have any chance of making the final.

"It's difficult because you have to win your group to get to the final and that basically means that you have to win your very first game. Our players won't have played any games before the tournament starts and last year in Iceland I thought our best performance was in the third-place play-off, which was our fourth game, because the players were beginning to recover their sense of rhythm."