Irish captain Séamus Coleman is now a major doubt for next month's Nations League games against Denmark and Wales after the results of a scan carried out on the foot injury that sidelined him for the friendly in Poland showed that the Everton full back had sustained a stress fracture.
After the 1-1 draw in Wroclaw Martin O'Neill told RTÉ radio that Coleman is a "concern" and that he "desperately hopes that he will be back for the games".
An injury of that nature would normally be expected to require four to six weeks to fully recover from but O’Neill did not elaborate on the severity of the problem with the manager simply remarking on how important the Everton player is to the game and what a great captain he believes him to be.
A spokesman for the FAI had said ahead of last night’s game that Coleman had sustained the injury in the game against Wales on Thursday night. When the two sides met in March of last year, the 29-year-old suffered a double leg fracture that sidelined him for a year.
If he was to miss the October games it would be another blow for O'Neill who is already hoping that Robbie Brady might manage to complete his recovery in time. Shane Long, James McCarthy and Sean Maguire are among the other players who have been missed this trip due to injuries.
O'Neill has suggested, meanwhile, that there will be some movement on the Harry Arter situation over the coming weeks but it is not clear whether, after all that has happened, he would come straight back into the reckoning.
In the absence of Coleman, Cyrus Christie made a decent case for himself in the Poland game while Matt Doherty did reasonably well in the position too after coming on early in the second half.
