Séamus Coleman’s knee surgery opens the door for other Irish right backs this summer. Definitely Matt Doherty, and maybe Andy Lyons.
The Everton and Ireland captain avoided ACL damage in a horror collision earlier this month but any hope of Coleman featuring in the European Championship qualifiers against Greece on June 16th and Gibraltar three days later are receding. However, the 34-year-old is intent on returning for the September meetings with France and the Netherlands.
“I feared the worst when I was taken off on a stretcher at Leicester City,” said Coleman. “Thankfully, the subsequent scans showed there was no lasting ligament damage and I will be back playing a lot sooner than I first feared.”
This is music to the ears of John O’Shea, the newly installed senior Ireland coach, who has stepped away from similar duties at Stoke City to focus on his international job.
“Look, I’ve no worries about [Coleman’s] bounce back ability,” said O’Shea at a Just Eat promotion event. “I sent him a message when I knew he was having the operation. Thankfully, by all accounts, it has gone to plan and gone well.
“Look, it needs a bit of time to heal. It obviously wasn’t nice seeing it but he has bounced back before from a terrible injury to a fantastic level, so hopefully that will be the case again.”
Coleman’s absence gives Doherty the chance to switch from left to right wing back against Greece despite the 31-year-old’s inability to command game time for Atlético Madrid since the January move from Tottenham Hotspur.
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Despite Blackpool’s relegation from the Championship, Lyons’s four goals in just 15 starts for the Tangerines should earn the 22-year-old a call-up to next week’s four-day training camp in Bristol.
Full commitment to Ireland by O’Shea might help to avoid a repeat of last year’s disastrous start to the Nations League campaign.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Stoke because it’s obviously a very good club, but just the commitments in terms of doing the Stoke job and the Irish job as well. It’s about getting a bit more balance in terms of family life too and most importantly going 100 per cent at it with the Ireland job.”
Former Ireland trainer Anthony Barry managed to double job with Chelsea, but O’Shea has no intention of using the position to enhance his short-term career prospects.
“It’s very simple, it’s the Irish senior team,” said O’Shea, who was capped 118 times by his country. “That’s the simple reason why it won over, wanting to commit to that, for the foreseeable future.”
Now comes the complicated part. A similar result as the 1-0 loss in Armenia last June, which spoiled the Republic of Ireland’s aim of winning their Nations League group, against Gus Poyet’s Greece could ruin their chances of qualifying directly for the 2024 European Championships in Germany.
Defeat in Yerevan was put down to a fallow period for players following the end of the Championship. The Irish management, admittedly, got their preparation wrong ahead of last year’s four-game window, when they also lost at home to Ukraine reserves before touches of class by Nathan Collins and Michael Obafemi salvaged respectability against Scotland and Ukraine in Poland.
“Some of the lads will have finished on May 8th so we’ve to be careful building them back up to be ready for that game in Greece.”
Ireland’s Championship players, who make up of most of the current squad, gather in Bristol on Monday before reconvening in Antalya, Turkey for a 10-day camp leading into the Greek game.
In March a Benjamin Pavard goal ensured that Ireland lost their opening Group B match to France in Dublin while Greece beat Gibraltar 3-0 in Faro.
“We know it’s a crucial game and there’s lots of details going into preparing for it.”
