Despite suffering an ankle injury against France last Thursday, Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe has boarded a flight to Australia with half her team-mates. The other half follow on Saturday afternoon to ensure everyone gets a business-class seat as Fifa cover the cost of travel to the World Cup.
“I went for a scan this morning, still feeling quite tender but I am happy where it is at,” said McCabe, who was forced off 30 minutes into the 3-0 defeat at Tallaght Stadium. “Just need a few days and hopefully I’ll be back on the pitch next week.”
Ireland face Colombia in a non-capped match next Friday in Brisbane. After a fantastic season at Arsenal saw McCabe included in the Champions League XI, the 27-year-old could conceivably be kept on ice until the World Cup opener against Australia on July 20th.
Irish manager Vera Pauw described the Colombia fixture as a means of “getting over our jet lag” but history does have a habit of rhyming. Jason McAteer was injured by a Cameroonian playing for Sanfrecce Hiroshima seven days before the 2002 World Cup opener against Cameroon. McAteer needed to be replaced at half-time.
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Rusesha Littlejohn has an Achilles issue while Megan Connolly and Sinead Farrelly were withdrawn with leg cramps during a chastising experience in Tallaght.
“We lost 3-0 yes, but we lost through individual mistakes,” said Pauw. “But that is why we want to play this game. If you see how we started the game, it was so good, France didn’t know how to deal with us. That is a level of play we haven’t seen before.”
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All three goals exposed a lack of concentration by Irish wing backs Heather Payne and Izzy Atkinson as the team struggled to cope with a French side playing well below their normal standards.
“We are bummed about the result,” said Farrelly, “but we have really tough opponents at the World Cup [hosts Australia, Olympic champions Canada and Nigeria] so I am happy that we got to play against France as we can gain confidence from the first 40-plus minutes, when we dominated.
“France are amazing. We do well when we are organised and in our block, staying close together, but they do so well rotating. The second we switched off mentally we got pulled apart.
“The last few minutes of a half are so fragile. We all know that from playing soccer, I mean football!” laughed the Philadelphia native whose father Sean hails from Virginia in Cavan. “We need to not let that happen again.”
The Ireland squad are struggling to mesh new recruits into an established system. Farrelly, at 33, has a wealth of experience but Thursday was the midfielder’s second cap and home debut alongside fellow Pennsylvanian Marissa Sheva.
“We know that when we stay in our shape we can make success out of that,” Farrelly added. “We don’t want to sit back and play defence, we want to score as well.”
How that is going to happen with McCabe playing in defence remains to be seen. Ireland had zero shots on target against France.
“I know,” said Pauw. “I hope that you all see that Kyra Carusa did well but Kyra needs faster support.”
Meanwhile, Ireland’s third opponents at the World Cup, Nigeria are threatening to boycott their opening match against Canada on July 21st after the Super Falcons governing body cancelled match bonuses.
European champions England are also in dispute with the FA over bonus payments following Fifa’s decision to guarantee every player at the tournament a payment of at least €27,000.
