`Stupid' incident is big worry

By the standards of the drama involving Fernando Couto and the breaking news of the FIFA ban out at Dublin airport, it was rather mundane stuff but a training game challenge that went wrong was enough to leave Mick McCarthy with some worries of his own last night.

Yesterday morning's tackle left both Stephen Carr and Damien Duff nursing ankle injuries with their manager describing the incident as "stupid". It may also result in McCarthy postponing his team selection until tomorrow.

News of Couto's indefinite suspension overshadowed the entire day with one rumour after another emerging with regard to the course of action planned by the Portuguese FA and their Dutch counterparts who heard yesterday Edgar Davids had similarly been handed an open-ended ban.

The potential loss of both Carr and Duff, though, represents at least as big a blow to the Irish camp.

Mark Kinsella, carrying a groin strain, sat out yesterday's training session completely but McCarthy said that he expected the central midfielder to be fine by kick-off time, although there was worse news on the defensive front with confirmation that Kenny Cunningham will miss tomorrow's home game and is almost certainly out of the trip to Estonia as well.

"Kenny won't play which is obviously a disappointment," said McCarthy, "and the longer it goes without him doing anything, the harder it gets to see him getting back into shape in time so it's hard to see him being involved next week although we'll sit down and talk about that after this game."

On the brighter side, Robbie Keane - another victim of a clash with Duff earlier in the week - further underlined his own fitness yesterday morning when he came through the squad's work-out without any problems.

Barring any late complications, the Leeds striker is now certain to start up front alongside Niall Quinn.

McCarthy, meanwhile, broadly welcomed the ban imposed on Couto yesterday as evidence that due process was being followed. "I've said all along that if the rules say he's entitled to play then fine, but that if they've dealt with the case and he's been found to be guilty then he deserves to be banned.

"I'm not daft enough to think, though, that the Portuguese have only one player who can defend. He did impress me out there, there's no doubt about that, but if he can't play they'll do exactly what we would in the circumstances, they'll play somebody else."

Irish winger Kevin Kilbane later expressed surprise at the sudden rise in the number of drugs cases involving footballers, remarking that he found it surprising that some players seemed to be claiming that the banned substances might have been given to them in error by club officials.

"I can't understand it," he said, "because if it was at our clubs you would expect the club doctor and the other team officials to be making sure that anything they give you would be okay".