Kilbane's long run looks likely to end

EURO 2012 QUALIFYING:WHETHER KEVIN Kilbane's remarkable run of consecutive competitive starts for Ireland ends on 66 still hangs in the balance this morning as the FAI's medical staff continue to weigh up whether to send the 34-year-old home to Derby County with a back complaint that again prevented him from training in Malahide yesterday.

The player, who arrived in Dublin at the start of the week hoping to make his 111th appearance for the team, aggravated what had seemed a relatively minor back problem in training on Monday afternoon but apparently felt well recovered after sitting out Tuesday’s session.

Having travelled with the rest of the squad to Gannon Park yesterday morning he quickly had to abandon an attempt to take part in a work-out due to what was reported to be significant back pain and after deferring a decision on the issue last night, Giovanni Trapattoni’s backroom staff will again consider today whether it is best to abandon any hope of him featuring in tomorrow’s game against Slovakia or Tuesday’s away to Russia.

“The doctor told us there was a problem but not a muscle injury,” said Marco Tardelli yesterday. “I’m not sure but it’s a problem because another day has gone by and Kevin is in much, much pain. Thankfully, though, we have options and Stephen Ward is ready. This proves we never forget the player because I saw Stephen many times and he played with us (Ireland B) against Nottingham Forest. Now, for us, he is ready.

“Stephen now is a strong player. He’s young and he runs for the whole match. He’s very good with his head. Now he’s ready to play an important match.”

Tardelli and the rest of the management team clearly hadn’t given up on Kilbane who, it had been hinted on Tuesday, might have been held in reserve for Moscow on the basis his experience would be a particular asset there while Ward’s pace going forward might prove more useful tomorrow night. Still, there was some satisfaction that they had won the race over the last year or two to come up with what they see as a viable alternative to the veteran.

Aside from the ongoing doubts about the defender, the news was generally good for Trapattoni yesterday with Robbie Keane taking a full part in training for the first time this week and Shay Given reportedly confident his back will be okay on Friday even if, it seems, it again needed to be rested yesterday.

Both, Tardelli asserted confidently, will be fine for the opening game and everything in training yesterday again pointed to Trapattoni selecting what most people would consider the most obvious starting 11 with the likes of Kevin Doyle, Keith Andrews and John O’Shea all returning. Things might, the Italian suggested, be changed again for the game against Russia on Tuesday, however, where Trapattoni will still have to find a way of countering the tactical approach he viewed as so problematic last October.

“We will have to fight for everything there,” said his assistant, “but we have skilful players. The Russian team is a very good team and they played with one more man in midfield. It was a strange match. The Russian team played with one striker and also in the next match I think they prefer to play with five men in midfield. That’s difficult to play against but in this game we have a lot of motivation to go and fight with them.”