Dean Kiely, who is not exactly a household name in Ireland, is included among the players from whom Mick McCarthy will name his teams for the Paul McGrath testimonial game on May 17th and the meeting with Mexico six days later.

Kiely (27), a goalkeeper with Bury, comes in as cover for Shay Given because of the unavailability Alan Kelly and Keith Branagan.

The newcomer, who had spells with Coventry and York City before arriving at Bury, was born in Salford but qualifies for Ireland as his father was born in Kilkenny.

In normal circumstances, McCarthy would almost certainly have called up Wimbledon's reserve goalkeeper, Brendan Murphy, but, given the nature of the fixtures, it was deemed prudent to look at Kiely.

"He is a player I have been aware of for some time and it seemed to me an ideal occasion to bring him into the squad and let him get to know the other players involved," McCarthy said.

Another, perhaps, more significant selection is the return of Jason McAteer for the first time since he broke his leg early in January. McAteer, once an established first choice player for Ireland, has made only a handful of international appearances in the last year. But he showed that his long lay off hadn't blunted his edge unduly by scoring twice in Liverpool's 5-0 win over West Ham last Saturday.

Curtis Fleming, the Middlesbrough defender who made the last of his nine international appearances when replacing Terry Phelan in the closing stages of the game against Romania in Dublin in November, will also make a popular return to the squad next week.

In some respects, the most pertinent statement accompanying yesterday's announcement was that Andy Townsend, Ray Houghton and Tony Cascarino would leave the squad immediately after the McGrath testimonial. Townsend, of course, has already announced his international retirement, and the inference to be drawn from yesterday's news is that Houghton and Cascarino are also out of McCarthy's European championship plans.

Ian Harte and David Connolly have been excused service in the testimonial game, so that they can play for the Under-21 team against Scotland at Ballybofey on May 18th. They will join the senior squad the following day.

With Steve Staunton and Gareth Whalley already ruled out because of injuries, McCarthy discovered shortly before he went public with the selection that he would also have to replace Alan McLoughlin, the Portsmouth player recently underwent an operation for the repair of a knee injury which forced his late withdrawal from the game against Argentina and will not play again this season. At this stage, it is probably a bigger blow for the player than the squad.

Even in the wake of the loss of the Townsend, an inspirational figure for so long, McCarthy is scarcely short of ambitious young midfield players, all pushing for recognition in his first XI.

McLoughlin, on the other hand, desperately needed the chance of rehabilitation before the manager begins to formulate a plan of campaign for the opening European game against Croatia in September.

The man who grew to folk status after producing the goal against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, which qualified Jack Charlton's team for the World Cup finals in the United States in 1994, was on the drift in the closing months of last year.

After being left out of the team for the opening leg of the World Cup play-off against Belgium at Lansdowne Road in November, he was replaced by Houghton during the return game in Brussels.

He only got on as a substitute for Gareth Farrelly during the 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic at Prague in March, so he could have done with the opportunity of reminding the manager that he still has an important contribution to make to the new European campaign.

"Its a blow for Alan and it doesn't do me any favours either," said McCarthy. "I spoke with him on Tuesday and he's resigned to the fact that his season is now over."

Squad: S Given (Newcastle Utd), D Kiely (Bury), G Kelly (Leeds Utd), D Irwin (Man Utd), K Cunningham (Wimbledon), G Breen (Coventry City), P Babb (Liverpool), J McAteer (Liverpool), M Kinsella (Charlton Ath), G Farrelly (Everton), N Quinn (Sunderland), C Fleming (Middlesbrough), D Duff (Blackburn), R Keane (Wolves), M Kennedy (Wimbledon), L Carsley (Derby Co), I Harte (Leeds Utd), D Connolly (Feyenoord), A Townsend (Middlesbrough), R Houghton (Reading), A Cascarino (AS Nancy).