Koeman suggests Shane Long sits out international break

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has suggested that his preference is for Shane Long to sit out the international break in order to concentrate on completing his recovery from the ankle injury that has sidelined him since his last outing with Ireland.

The Southampton boss did not say anything about preventing Long from travelling but said that while the Irishman and Jay Rodriguez would miss this weekend's game at Sunderland, he hoped the break that follows would allow them to concentrate on getting fit again.

“They are close but it is too fast for them to be part of the team and I hope the international break gives them the opportunity to recover their freshness and physically so as to be prepared for the next one (the Premier League game against Stoke City later in November).”

At another point in the various pre-match media work Koeman did, he suggested that Long had had something of a setback in training, with the 28-year-old striker said to have had “a reaction” to the work he was doing.

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill is likely to want to make a call for himself on whether Long is ready to play some part competitively at this stage, but given that the player picked up his current problem while on international duty, there does seem to be the potential for the situation to be become difficult if Koeman is actually set against his participation.

As things stand, Long is expected to travel to Dublin at the start of next week with the squad due to train together for the first time on Monday afternoon.

Sunderland’s John O’Shea is available for that same league game against Southampton with the defender said to have shaken off a recent hamstring problem.

O'Shea is, along with Jon Walters, suspended for the first leg of Ireland's play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina next Friday but would be likely to return to the starting line for the home game if fit and available to do so.

Ireland, meanwhile, are up 12 places to 42nd in Fifa’s latest world ranking list while Bosnia and Herzegovina, are up 10 places to number 20.