Richard Dunne and David Connolly have both pulled out of Wednesday's friendly international against the Czech Republic while Andy O'Brien looks set to miss the game after sitting out Newcastle's defeat by Bolton yesterday with a thigh strain.
Dunne and Connolly started for their clubs over the weekend with the Manchester City defender playing the full 90 minutes against Fulham and the West Ham striker, who has missed a number of games lately, also with a thigh strain, featuring for 70 minutes of the London side's 2-1 win over Gillingham.
Brian Kerr suggested he had half expected Connolly's withdrawal last week when he mentioned there were doubts about the fitness of the striker and Liverpool's Steve Finnan (who subsequently pulled out of the game with a shoulder problem) when naming his squad.
Dunne's failure to travel, however, came as more of a surprise yesterday. It means that if O'Brien also misses out then the Ireland manager, who has already omitted Gary Breen and John O'Shea from his panel because of the pair's FA Cup commitments next week, would be left with just two recognised centre halves, Gary Doherty and Kenny Cunningham, available for selection on Wednesday.
In that event John Thompson of Nottingham Forest could receive a call up although Matt Holland could also be used in central defence on the night.
With O'Shea absent and Finnan having withdrawn, Kerr is also fairly short of experienced cover in the full back positions and Alan Maybury, who can play at either right or left back, looks to be in a fairly strong position to earn his third international cap at some point over the course of the evening after being called into the squad towards the end of last week.
As of last night, though, Kerr said that he is happy with the 20 players he expects to be around for training this morning and he indicated he does not anticipate drafting in any more players unless further problems arise.
Meanwhile, the manager of the English national team, Sven-Goran Eriksson, yesterday secured a £3 million salary increase in return for committing himself to the job until after the 2006 World Cup.
The deal was announced after a fraught weekend of negotiations sparked by revelations that he had been in renewed discussions with Chelsea.
It involves a two-year extension to the 54-year-old's deal with the Football Association (FA) that sees him contracted until after the 2008 European championships.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND REVISED SQUAD (v Czech Republic, Lansdowne Road, Wednesday, 7.30): Given (Newcastle Utd), Murphy (West Bromwich Albion), Kenny (Sheffield Utd), Maybury (Hearts), O'Brien (Newcastle Utd), Doherty (Tottenham), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Carr (Tottenham), Harte (Leeds Utd), Carsley (Everton), Delap (Southampton), Kinsella (West Bromwich Albion), McPhail (Leeds Utd), Holland (Charlton Ath), Kilbane (Everton), Reid (Nottingham Forest), Duff (Chelsea), Lee (Cardiff City), Keane (Tottenham), Morrison (Birmingham City).
