Discovering how well his team can cope without a big man to play off up front looks to be the main task Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy has set himself ahead of tomorrow night's friendly international against Denmark.

McCarthy admitted yesterday that, given Niall Quinn's recurring back trouble, the prospect of having to go to Cyprus and Barcelona (where we play Andorra) without the 34-year-old is a very real one.

In his absence this week Feyenoord's David Connolly looks to be the only obvious candidate to partner Robbie Keane up front, but McCarthy insists that there is room for some experimentation. Rory Delap, Kevin Kilbane and Gary Doherty may all get a run out in attack at Lansdowne Road.

"The fact that we might have to do without Quinny in Cyprus means that we might as well have a look at something else in this game," said McCarthy, before adding: "David's obviously an option although I already have a pretty good idea what he can do, so going with one of the others would be more like experimentation."

McCarthy conceded that he was somewhat uncomfortable about losing his target man (while Connolly himself said that he felt somebody like himself or Robbie Keane playing off a bigger man is the ideal combination for the team), but Connolly and Keane have teamed up successfully before. "They did well, so it's not something I'd be all that worried about," McCarthy added.

Of the other options open to McCarthy, Delap's experience in playing as an attacker and Doherty's size probably give them an edge over Kilbane who, aside from having lost his place in the Sunderland team over the past few months, is less used to playing directly in front of goal.

"He has come on and played there a couple of time this season but coming on with 20 minutes to go when the game has been stretched out and there's a lot more space out there is a very different thing to playing for 90 minutes with your back to goal," McCarthy said.

In the circumstances the Republic of Ireland manager would surely have loved to be in a position to take a look at Clinton Morrison, but with the player having made it impossible for the Ireland manager to call him up, talking about him was off McCarthy's agenda yesterday.

When the questions moved on to Robbie Keane, McCarthy was obviously much happier, observing that that the player's move from Inter Milan to Leeds had already, he felt, helped the 20 year-old's performances.

"Maybe the fact that he wasn't playing for his club (Inter) meant that he was trying that little bit too hard for us because he felt he had something to prove. It's not an obvious thing to criticise a player for, trying too hard, but it ends up being a problem because when you're relaxed and letting things come naturally then you play better and now that he's settled in well at Leeds I think we're seeing that again from Robbie."

Later Keane himself conceded that he might have been a little over anxious on his last trip home and agreed that his game had probably benefited from the move to a club where he is pretty much in the side week in week out.

With his club side "sky high", and Keane himself feeling "fit and strong" after scoring six goals in 11 games, the young Dubliner certainly looked like a man happy with his lot. That's not to say that he has had great change of heart regarding his stay in Italy. Yesterday he maintained once again that the experience had, on the whole, been a good learning one and that he would have no difficulty about considering another move overseas at some stage.

It's just, you understand, that nothing quite like that is "in the picture at the moment".