Soccer:Ciarán Clark will have to wait until next year to make his Republic of Ireland debut after injury ruled the young defender out of Wednesday's friendly against Norway. Clark, who was only called into the squad on Friday, will stay with Aston Villa to have treatment on a calf injury.
The 21-year-old was added to Giovanni Trapattoni’s panel after Fifa indicated they would have the relevant paperwork processed in time for Wednesday’s match. But Clark, who is quickly establishing himself as a first team regular at Villa Park, picked up an injury ahead of yesterday’s clash with Manchester United.
With Ireland not in action again until March, when they meet Macedonia in the Euro 2012 qualifiers, Clark won’t win his first cap this side of Christmas. Richard Dunne, so instrumental in Clark’s decision to declare for Ireland, will also miss the visit of Egil Olsen’s side to Dublin.
Dunne played all 90 minutes of Villa’s 2-2 draw with United yesterday but suffered a recurrence of the knee injury that kept him out of the matches with Wolves and Blackburn. In what is essentially a meaningless friendly, the defender won’t be risked at the Aviva Stadium.
Hull’s Kevin Kilbane picked up a back injury during his side’s win over Championship struggles Preston on Friday night and has withdrawn from the squad while Seán St Ledger also suffered an injury in that match but will travel to Dublin to be assessed by the Irish medical team.
St Ledger was at fault for Hull’s second goal as the Tigers won 2-0 but played through the pain barrier with a knee injury he collected in the sixth minute of the contest. “Ledge was in a bit of pain at half-time and had an injection,” his manager Darren Ferguson revealed after the match.
Robbie Keane, Paul McShane and Caleb Folan were all ruled out last week but Trapattoni is happy with the players he has available and will not bring in any new faces.
Revised Ireland squad:Shay Given (Manchester City), Keiren Westwood (Coventry); John O'Shea (Manchester Utd), Séamus Coleman (Everton), Seán St Ledger (Preston), Greg Cunningham (Manchester City), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Darren O'Dea (Celtic); Marc Wilson (Stoke), Darron Gibson (Manchester Utd), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Paul Green (Derby), Liam Lawrence (Portsmouth), Stephen Hunt (Wolves), Aiden McGeady (Spartak Moscow), Keith Treacy (Preston), Damien Duff (Fulham), Keith Fahey (Birmingham); Jonathan Walters (Stoke), Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Shane Long (Reading).