Emmet Malone Soccer correspondent

The story of Brian Kerr's first year in charge of the Irish senior team could hardly be categorised as one long tale of the unexpected but as the Dubliner continued his preparations for the most important game of his still brief reign yesterday, he managed one minor surprise yesterday by including Graham Kavanagh in the panel for next week's trip to Basle.

More significant in terms of the team's chances of securing a win in Switzerland next Saturday is the return of Robbie Keane following his absence from the team against Russia through injury, while the absence of Richard Dunne due to an ankle injury will limit the manager's options as he attempts to plug the gap left by suspended skipper Kenny Cunningham.

Kavanagh's return more than four years after he won the last of three international caps in a friendly against Northern Ireland was not entirely unexpected with Kerr having kept a close eye on the 29-year-old's consistently impressive form at Cardiff where manager Lennie Lawrence had loudly championed the Dubliner's cause in recent weeks.

The midfielder was clearly thrilled by the news yesterday, remarking, "after a week of speculation to get confirmation is just fantastic. Now that I'm in the squad and have my foot in the door, so to speak, I intend to do my best and I'd like to think that I have a chance of playing.

"I was starting to think that my chance wouldn't come again," he added. "But I believe I can still achieve things in my career and that I have an international future."

Kerr spoke highly of Kavanagh's ability to impose himself and exert considerable influence in central midfield when playing for Cardiff and, while acknowledging that his considerable experience has been amassed in lower division football, he insisted it was an asset worth having available to him next weekend.

It is that experience that appears to have given Kavanagh the edge in the final shake down for places over the likes of Alan Quinn, Thomas Butler and Liam Miller. The Celtic midfielder's form since the start of the season provided him with his strongest case yet for inclusion but Kerr's insisted yesterday that he didn't feel that this was the time to be adding new faces to the panel and so, with only 22 due to travel on this occasion, the likes of Quinn and Alan Lee have been the ones to make way.

Dunne, meanwhile, had stood a realistic chance of featuring in next week's match, if not from the start then certainly at some point later in the proceedings. But the 24 year-old defender has been struggling with an ankle problem since Manchester City's UEFA Cup game against FC Lokeren and having been given an injection to aid his recovery on Wednesday, he has been told to rest for a week, an instruction that put an end to his hopes of travelling.

Brighter news comes in the form of Keane's return with the Tottenham striker having amply demonstrated his return to fitness during the club's most recent games.

"I haven't seen him because obviously he's only played two matches and Chris (Hughton) is there watching him the whole time, but obviously it's important that we have him back," said Kerr.

Assuming he survives this weekend's Premiership game against Everton without any problems Keane is certain to return to the starting line-up in Basle. Alongside him the second striker's place is up for grabs with David Connolly, who Kerr said yesterday he has been impressed by in recent games, currently looking to be the front-runner to start.

The manager also welcomed the speed with which Gary Breen has regained his fitness after picking up a groin injury for Sunderland although he described as "scare-mongering" the reports a few weeks ago that the centre back was set to miss out on the Swiss match.

He still, he admitted, faces a slightly nervous wait over the weekend as the bulk of his squad play for their clubs. "There are a few of them who could do with the game," he laughed. "But then there's a few that you could do with not being let near a ball between now and Saturday week."

Asked how he assessed the situation in the group in the wake of Russia's in over Switzerland he said that Ireland's situation remained unchanged and that the team would have to go into the Swiss match assuming that the game in Moscow would again go the way of the home team.

"Lingering political factors would suggest that the Georgians will give it a go but the fact is that they've lost away from home three times and Russia have won all three of their home games, so if you were doing the pools you'd probably put it down as a one."

The Swiss, he said, may have been "a little fortunate" to win in Dublin last year, "but they're a good team and they're going to be hard to beat. What I would say, though, is that we've taken more points from the games since they beat us than they have. They started very strong with seven points from their first three games but they've only taken five from the four since."

He added that he expected the Swiss team to be largely in line with the one deployed by Kubi Kuhn in earlier games. That could still mean substantial changes to the side that lost in Moscow with Kuhn expected to bring back six players who missed that trip.