Martin O’Neill waits on key players before finalising squad

Martin O'Neill has said that he will take a few days before trying to finalise his approach to Friday's first leg of Ireland's European Championship qualifier against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica with the northerner reluctant to make any decisive calls on the fitness of key players on the basis of his squad's first training session this week.

With John O'Shea, Shane Long and Rob Elliot amongst those to have stayed on at their clubs for further treatment before a decision is made on what if any part they can play in the games, O'Neill said t he would give the players as much time as possible while taking a day or two himself to weigh up whether the likes of Wes Hoolahan might be up to starting both games this time.

“It’s the first training session of the week,” he said, “so first things first. There’s no point in having lots of things in your mind if, for instance, some players that you might have been thinking about turn out not to be available.

“So I’ll sit down over the next few days, talk to some of the players and then formulate some sort of a plan . . . which is not to say I haven’t been thinking about it; it’s all I’ve been thinking about since the draw in Geneva.”

O’Neill remains upbeat about the prospects of O’Shea and Long featuring in some way over the next week. Long had an injection into his injured ankle yesterday and will be given 48 hours in which to start showing some signs of significant improvement, the manager says, while the Sunderland defender remains hopeful himself of featuring in the Dublin leg next Monday.

“Shane has gone to see a specialist today,” said O’Neill after the squad’s first session of the week at Abbotstown. “He’s had an injection. He hasn’t ruled himself out which is very encouraging. And he will give me an update on how he is. Alan, our doctor, said we won’t really know much more for another 48 hours. But at least he hasn’t ruled himself out.

“Obviously, it will be touch and go. He hasn’t played since the Poland game, was making good progress and then that suddenly slowed down, but we’ll see how this injection goes. He just said to ‘hold fire’ which I’m prepared to do.”

“John,” he continued, “when I spoke to him last week, thought there might be a little chance of playing in the game (against Southampton) on Saturday but obviously that was a little bit too soon. He’s stayed on at Sunderland to see how the treatment goes and, again, we will have to monitor that day by day. But certainly for Monday, which is the only game he’s eligible for, he hasn’t ruled himself out yet.”

As for Elliot, who was due to see a specialist yesterday, O’Neill stressed that he hadn’t seen or heard the precise comments made by Newcastle manager Steve McClaren but he was, he suggested, somewhat bemused by the idea that a player who played so well on Saturday for his club might be ruled out of international duty afterwards by his manager.

“I certainly don’t want to play somebody who is injured but these games are very important to us,” he said. “I’ve been a club manager; I understand these things but I’m not so sure that I could actually honestly step up and ask someone to play on a Saturday, who plays brilliantly and wins the points, very, very important points and then say ‘Sorry, you can’t go, you’re not fit’. What? Did he slip in the bath? He must have done.

“He’s not fully fit obviously because he has a bit of a problem and he’s seen the specialist (but) so if he was available for selection (on Saturday) and did actually play the whole game then I think that when it comes to international level, we’re entitled to feel we can assess him too.”

Paul McShane (ankle) and Alan Judge (hamstring) will also be given another day or two to recuperate at their clubs before a call is made on whether they can travel.

O'Neill, meanwhile, welcomed the fact that Daryl Murphy finally ended his long run without a goal for Ipswich when he scored a hat-trick against Rotherham over the weekend.

"It was good to see," he said. "Daryl was scoring pretty much at will last season but something that sort of thing happens. It's been a pretty slow start for Harry Kane but then you get a penalty or a goal and suddenly you're up and running. It certainly gives you a boost but he started against Germany so he's never been far away."

With Long almost certainly out of the first game and Jon Walters suspended for it too, Murphy may yet get to play an important role in Zenica where an away goal is clearly a priority for the manager.

“I think we have to be positive for a start,” he says, “and try to get a goal. Away goals, as has been proven over the last 25 years, have become really, really important so that is something that we’ll be very much trying to get if at all possible so that come Monday when they crowd is behind us they’ll have something to cheer about. The main thing is to be still in the game when that second leg comes around.”