Wednesday's friendly international against the United States will no doubt provide more debating points for Irish fans in the run-up to the World Cup, but manager Mick McCarthy revealed this afternoon that he already knows which 23 players will - barring injury - make up the squad which will travel with him to Japan.
Those 23 elite troops will set off on Operation World Cup from Dublin on May 17th, the day after the home friendly with Nigeria, and the man masterminding the mission again insisted that "the players who got me there are the ones who'll come with me - you don't become bad players in the space of six months."
McCarthy admits breaking the bad news to the players he hasn't selected will be the hardest managerial tasks he's had to perform since his days as Millwall boss, when he had to tell certain aspiring youngsters they weren't good enough to become professionals, but he says he's quite prepared to break hearts:
"I've got to pick what I think is the best possible squad to help us make progress. I can't control how players who haven't been selected take the blow," he said.
Some observers have criticized the manager for putting faith in players they perceive as undeserving of it, but McCarthy rejects such gripes.
"I have never thought my loyalty is to my detriment" he said, "I've given it to my players and I've got it back in spades."
Two players some say should be ditched are Wolves winger Mark Kennedy, and Everton midfielder Lee Carsley, but McCarthy singled them out today as players who are very much to the forefront of his thinking, even though both are currently injured.
Kennedy, who was yesterday named in the Division One Team of the Season, has been out of action for several weeks, but is hopeful of returning to action in time for next weekend's visit to Sheffield Wednesday, potentially Wolves' final match of the season.
"In a funny way, it might be to Mark's benefit if Wolves miss out on automatic promotion," said McCarthy, "because he'll then have the chance of playing a few more competitive games in the play-offs."
The Premiership season finishes two weeks later than the Division One campaign, a fact which might work to Carsley's advantage as he would have the opportunity to play for Everton again before the end of the season. If he doesn't recover in time, the fourth central midfield place (behind Roy Keane, Mark Kinsella, and Matt Holland) may well go to young Corkonian Colin Healy, whose accomplished performances in the spring friendlies appear to have edged him in front of players such as Rory Delap.
Delap, of course, is back in the squad this week for the first time since the match against Andorra, and the Southampton man is well capable of playing in a variety of roles. If he is overlooked for the central midfield role, which is where he has played for his club this season ever since the arrival of Gordon Strachan, he could do a job on the right-hand side of midfield. However, McCarthy indicated he may already have sufficient cover in that position.
"Rory can do a good job there, but he's missed a lot of football this season, and we've got Jason McAteer, Steve Finnan, Gary Kelly who have all played there for me, as has Stephen Reid who has done particularly well in the last few matches."
The manager, however, did mention the fact that Delap can also play up front, prompting speculation that he may be tempted to bring him as back-up for Niall Quinn. Then again, he also pointed out that fit-again Gary Doherty has proved himself useful as a targetman. But then he also suggested he may not deploy a targetman at all.
"We don't just spank the ball up the pitch to a big guy" he said, "that's not how we play. We could if we wanted to, but it's an option I may not bother with."
Two players who are certain to travel if fit are goalkeeper Shay Given and full-back Steve Finnan, both of whom were named last night in the Premiership Team of the Season.
"That's the best award they could ever get, to be recognized by their fellow professionals" said McCarthy, "and Dean Kiely was voted the second-choice goalkeeper in that team so it's nice a great achievement by the lot of them."
The other Irish player named in the Premiership dream team was, of course, Roy Keane, and McCarthy is confident he too will be able to travel to Japan.
"I haven't chased up news of his injury" he said, "because basically I knew that if it was his knee he would have picked up the phone straight away and told me. The Old Trafford doctors were on to me a few days after it happened, and they told me it was a torn hamstring and he'll be back in about four weeks."
That'll be a huge boost to Ireland's chances of enjoying a successful campaign, but for those late-comers hoping to catch a ride on Ireland's Orient Express, it'll mean one less place to fight for.