Andrew Omobamidele a doubt for Ireland’s date with Portugal

Burnley’s Nathan Collins is set to make his competitive debut against Cristiano Ronaldo at a sold out Aviva Stadium on Thursday night after Andrew Omobamidele emerged as an injury concern ahead of Ireland’s penultimate World Cup qualifier against Portugal.

The 19-year-old centre-half picked up an injury playing for Norwich City during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Brentford.

“We have to have a fitness check on Andrew Omobamidele,” said Ireland manager Stephen Kenny. “He got a kick in his achilles in the Norwich game, he is sore, we have to see how he is.

“We have to wait and see, I won’t say I am optimistic.

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“Jayson Molumby has tweaked his hamstring and won’t be available tomorrow night.”

Collins was set to be capped ahead of Omobamidele last September but the 20-year-old picked up a knock. He was subsequently capped last month in the friendly against Qatar.

“Nathan is certainly in contention, that’s for sure,” said Kenny. “It is an area where we have three emerging players coming through, which is great for our future really, with Dara O’Shea, who got injured in Faro, Nathan Collins and Andrew Omobamidele, who has been absolutely excellent for us since he made his debut. He is just so natural at this level which is great to see.”

Omobamidele’s first cap was a baptism of fire, keeping tabs on Ronaldo, during the agonising 2-1 defeat at Estádio Algarve when he replaced O’Shea after 35 minutes.

“We had a year of empty stadiums,” added Kenny. “Nothing. It is a bit soulless when it is empty like that. 27,000 made a big difference last month but 52,000 for this game is amazing. We are very enthused by that. The players are motivated by that.”