Soccer:Shane Duffy is back on his feet and said to be recovering well from surgery on a "freak" life-threatening injury and was visited in hospital today by Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni, his assistant Marco Tardelli and captain Robbie Keane.
Duffy sustained the injury during last week’s training game in Malahide before being rushed to the Mater Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery after colliding with amateur goalkeeper Adrian Walsh and lost almost four litres of blood when rupturing his hepatic artery. The Everton player is now on course to be discharged this weekend.
“Yes, (we went to see Shane) this morning,” confirmed Tardelli after today’s training session. “Some time they feel the pain but it’s very good. We are very happy.”
After last night’s 1-0 win against Paraguay Trapattoni’s side will look to make it two wins from two against Algeria on Friday at the RDS. Paul McShane has been ruled out and could be replaced in defence by John O’Shea while Keane and Liam Lawrence both took knocks.
“Robbie and Liam have little problems but I think tomorrow they can train,” added Tardelli. “Robbie took a knock and Liam has a problem with his groin but it’s not serious.”
“Paul McShane has gone back home because his sister is getting married. A new player is possible but it’s not so important if they play or not. Because they were with us for the week, we can see if they are a good player for us.”
Tardelli hopes Ireland will go out and express themselves the same way they did against Paraguay.
“For the game on Friday I think it is possible that they will go out and play with the same mentality, the same attention, the same concentration. I think they will play a very good match.
"We always want to win because that is our mentality. But we are very upset that we are staying here and the other teams are going to the World Cup.
"This team has shown that it is possible to play at the World Cup because it is a very good team now."