Keith O'Neill may have some work to do before the prospect of reviving a once-promising international career becomes a reality, writes Emmet Malone, Soccer Correspondent

However, if the 27-year-old's confidence has survived the bumps and breaks endured by his body during the past few seasons he may have taken Brian Kerr's attendance at Highfield Road for Coventry's game with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night as something of a tribute to his former reputation.

Having come off the bench to make his first City appearance in some 18 months, the Dubliner lasted just seven minutes before a recurrence of a hamstring problem forced him off again.

Kerr, though, scarcely had a wasted journey as Stephen McPhail's first performance in the Forest midfield was sufficiently impressive for the Ireland boss to recall the midfielder to his squad for the forthcoming games against Russia and Turkey.

Like O'Neill, McPhail possessed sufficient early promise to generate high expectations but the 23-year-old has struggled to make a sustained impact at Leeds United while doing enough whenever he goes on loan to maintain the suspicion somebody at Elland Road isn't trying hard enough to coax the best out of him.

The Ireland manager said yesterday McPhail's contribution over the 90 minutes on Wednesday had been "impressive". His call-up is a sign Kerr remains well disposed to a player whose lack of recent first-team action would presumably have ruled him out of the panel had the friendly against the Turks three days after Ireland's crucial European qualifier not held out the prospect of experimentation.

Also included, and with more realistic chances of featuring against the Russians after missing the friendly against Australia, are Lee Carsley and Steven Reid who are fit again after struggling in pre-season with knee and ankle problems, respectively.

Reid has already featured a couple of times for new club Blackburn and while Carsley has spent most of the past few weeks receiving treatment, Kerr says the midfielder is optimistic regarding his chances of being available for the weekend's Merseyside derby.

With Robbie Keane missing there is ostensibly a vacancy up front and Alan Lee is included in the squad after a good first couple of weeks at Cardiff.

But Damien Duff seems likely to start in a striking role against the Russians and so it is in midfield that Kerr might have to reshape things slightly with the result Reid and Carsley's return will be of more significance at the end of next week.

Overall it is a strong panel with almost everybody being available to the manager. And the last few days have been generally good for Kerr with players like Ian Harte and Mark Kinsella getting their first English Premiership starts of the season and John O'Shea scoring his first goal for Manchester United just a week after scoring for the Republic.

Kerr made it clear that a game as important as next Saturday's is not the occasion on which to contemplate bringing in new faces but he went on to suggest he may call in a few more bodies immediately afterwards. Given his form for Celtic since the summer Liam Miller looks a good bet to make some sort of appearance at Lansdowne Road on Tuesday week against the Turkey.

Keane's absence, meanwhile, was mentioned by Kerr as being a difficulty for the team to overcome but, he added, "We just have to hope that he will be fully fit for our game against Switzerland in Basel."

Ireland Squad

Gary Breen (Sunderland)

Stephen Carr (Tottenham Hotspur)

Lee Carsley (Everton)

Nicky Colgan (Stockport County)

David Connolly (West Ham United)

Kenny Cunningham (Birmingham City)

Gary Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur)

Damien Duff (Chelsea)

Richard Dunne (Manchester City)

Steve Finnan (Liverpool)

Shay Given (Newcastle United)

Ian Harte (Leeds United)

Colin Healy (Sunderland)

Matt Holland (Charlton Athletic)

Kevin Kilbane (Sunderland)

Mark Kinsella (Aston Villa)

Alan Lee (Cardiff City)

Stephen McPhail (Nottingham Forest)

Clinton Morrison (Birmingham City)

Joe Murphy (West Bromwich Albion)

Andy O'Brien (Newcastle United)

John O'Shea (Manchester United)

Alan Quinn (Sheffield Wednesday)

Steven Reid (Blackburn Rovers)