At Everton they treat him badly. The fans call him the Honey Monster. The "Gaffer" makes him play right back.

Neither assignation is quite fair.

Richard Dunne is big, but having lost two stone during the close season a couple of years ago he is no monster. If he looks out of place it is when dealing with nippy wingers. He was born to be a centre half and until he gets a long run of first-team action in that position, we won't know yet if he will be a great one.

We'll know a little bit more tonight.

He'll feel a few wobbles he reckons when the national anthem goes but after that he doesn't expect the atmosphere to be any different to the craziness of a Merseyside derby.

On Thursday night Mick McCarthy had knocked on the door of his hotel room. "I've just told the press that you're playing, so they'll be onto you," the manager said.

It was the first confirmation of what he'd expected since McCarthy took him aside for a chat earlier in the week. His father flew in yesterday, and he expects the rest of the clan will be in the Cuckoo's Nest pub in Tallaght watching tonight's game.

After McCarthy left on Thursday, Dunne lay on the bed chatting to his room-mate Robbie Keane. They've known each other since they were 10. Tonight they play their first World Cup match together.

"It was funny, we grew up in Tallaght together and there we were in the room and we were talking about Italia '90 and how we both collected the same World Cup stickers book. We were saying about how funny it was, us being here now and maybe come 2002 there'd be a sticker book with the two of us in it."

Growing up as a scion in a football family (his uncle is Theo Dunne), his hero was Paul McGrath. He has dim memories of the famous penalty shoot-out against Romania in 1990. Dunne has become a regular at Everton but not in a position he enjoys. Last week that looked like changing.

He was off to Wimbledon. Then he was staying. Now he doesn't know. He told Wimbledon he'd get back to them on Monday. Meanwhile Richard Gough got injured and Walter Smith announced that, as far as he was concerned, the deal was dead.

Tonight he's in the window. No Honey Monster. No right back. He hopes people are paying attention. "Yeah, it's a chance to show what I can do," he says.