EURO 2012 QUALIFYING: GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI will hear today whether the hamstring injury John O'Shea's picked up in Manchester United's defeat of Marseille on Tuesday is serious enough to keep him out of Saturday week's European Championship qualifier against Macedonia.
The 29-year-old underwent a number of scans yesterday and the FAI was not anticipating the results would be relayed to them until this morning but the expectation last night was the news, when it arrives, will be bad.
United now face an injury crisis going into Saturday’s Premier League game against Bolton when Alex Ferguson may have just four fit defenders available.
With Richard Dunne already a major doubt for the Republic of Ireland game, Trapattoni is facing the prospect on starting a crucial qualifying match without two key defenders or his first-choice goalkeeper.
The Ireland manager included four other defenders in his squad on Monday – Ciarán Clark, Kevin Foley, Stephen Kelly and Darren O’Dea – while Séamus Coleman played at right back until this season when David Moyes moved him to the right side of midfield and Stoke’s Marc Wilson has played in both central and right- sided defensive roles at Premier League level.
Kelly has comfortably more caps than the rest of those players combined but Trapattoni has never seemed convinced by the Fulham defender who, in any case, has not played for his club since just before Ireland’s defeat by Norway back in November.
The absence of O’Shea and Dunne would likely result in Trapattoni having to field a back five that includes three players making their competitive debuts, with Sean St Ledger and Kevin Kilbane, who are playing their club football in the Championship and League One respectively, completing the defensive line-up.
The Ireland manager will at least have been pleased by the news that Robbie Keane came through a reserve game for West Ham on Tuesday night without an problems. The Dubliner played for an hour and scored in his club’s 4-2 defeat of Newcastle without any apparent problems.
“The injury is fine now,” Keane said afterwards. “It has obviously been frustrating. You come to a new club and you want to play as soon as possible and you get injured but it is nice to get back and be able to get another 60 minutes. I am looking forward now to pushing on.
“It is always nice to score, whether it is a reserve game or first-team game,” he added, “but the most important thing for me was getting as many minutes as I could under my belt.”
Keane will not be involved in West Ham’s game at Tottenham this weekend as he is prevented from playing by the terms of his loan agreement but is hoping he will return to Avram Grant’s starting line-up in a couple of weeks time when the Londoners take on Manchester United.
“It would be nice (to play against United) but it is up to the manager,” he said. “The lads have been doing tremendously well, so first of all I have to work hard to get back in the team. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.”
Goran Pandev, meanwhile, is the most notable name in the Macedonian squad named yesterday by Mirsad Jonuz for the trip to Dublin next week, with the Inter Milan striker, who scored the Italian side’s dramatic late winner in Munich on Tuesday night, expected to captain the team.
Pandev is one of several Macedonians to have hit a bit of form with their clubs, with goalkeeper Martin Bogatinov and Goran Popov particularly impressive in recent weeks for Karpaty Lvov and Dynamo Kiev respectively while Mainz skipper Nikolce Noveski has been enjoying a good campaign in the Bundesliga.
Jonuz, who says he expects his defence to be tested by the Irish with “constant pressure and long balls”, also has a number of players back from injury and has named what is very close to his strongest possible squad for the qualifier on Saturday week.
Macedonia are second last in Group B on four points but could move above Ireland if they win. In the day’s other games, Russia and Slovakia travel to Armenia and Andorra respectively.
MACDEONIA SQUAD:Goalkeepers: Nuredinoski (Ethnikos Achna), Bogatinov (Karpaty Lviv), Naumovski (Dinamo Bucaresti); Defenders: Noveski (Mainz 05), Mitreski (Neftchi Baku), Popov (Dynamo Kyiv), Sikov (Ethnikos Achna), Grncarov (APOEL), Lazevski (Partizan Belgrade); Midfielders: Sumulikoski (Sibir Novosibirsk), Tasevski (Levski Sofia), Demiri (Thun), Gjurovski (Metalurg Donetsk), Despotovski (Inter Baku), Georgievski (Neftchi Baku), Alimi (Istra 1961); Forwards: Pandev (Inter Milan), Trickovski (APOEL), Naumoski (Mattersburg), Ristic (Amkar Perm).
