Soccer:Keith Andrews has been ruled out of the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Armenia and Andorra after failing to recover from the groin strain that has kept him sidelined in recent weeks. The Blackburn midfielder will remain in Lancashire for treatment, the FAI confirmed this afternoon.
The rest of the Republic of Ireland squad will assemble in Malahide later this evening, although question marks remain over the availability of Keith Treacy and Paul McShane.
Treacy was injured during Preston’s 1-0 defeat at his former club Sheffield United on Saturday. The winger, who rattled the crossbar with a third-minute free-kick, hobbled off just before the hour mark and his injury will be assessed by the Irish medical team tomorrow.
McShane, who picked up a calf injury in the Carling Cup earlier in the week, didn’t feature for Hull yesterday.
Concerns over Kevin Doyle’s fitness prompted Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni to draft Cillian Sheridan into his squad on Friday, but the forward allayed those fears and lasted 72 minutes against Newcastle.
His strike partner for Ireland, Robbie Keane, was an unused substitute during Tottenham’s shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of Wigan with manager Harry Redknapp deploying Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko ahead of the Irish skipper.
Glenn Whelan was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet during Stoke’s 2-0 loss at league leaders Chelsea. The Irish midfielder, sprung from the bench after 50 minutes with his side 1-0 down, almost drew stoke level but his stunning 25-yard drive cracked against Petr Cech’s crossbar and flew away to safety.
Aidan McGeady is still waiting to make his Spartak Moscow debut following his €12 million transfer from Celtic. McGeady had been expected to feature in yesterday’s match with Terek Grozny – which the Moscow club lost 2-0 – but was omitted from the travelling party.
Mark Hughes, meanwhile, has confirmed his intention to bring Shay Given to Craven Cottage before Tuesday's transfer deadline.
With Mark Schwarzer seemingly on his way to Arsenal, Hughes is hoping to sign the Irish goalkeeper on loan from Manchester City. Given, who remains behind Joe Hart in the pecking order at Eastlands, was signed by Hughes for City in January 2009.
"Mark Schwarzer has made it clear that he would like to go to Arsenal so we are trying to look at other options," Hughes said. "I'm always interested in quality players and Shay Given is a quality player. Make of that what you will. But I have said that if we can't get anyone else in, Schwarzer will have to stay."