Gareth Farrelly's call-up yesterday was the only change Mick McCarthy made to his squad for Saturday's game with Iran after yesterday's first training session in Dublin.

Neither Roy Keane nor Dean Kiely were present for the run-out while Matt Holland and Steve Finnan were both forced to rest through it but there was much better news for McCarthy with regard to Kevin Kilbane and Steven Reid, both of whom took an active part before skipping the practice game.

Kiely, McCarthy confirmed afterwards, is fit and due to arrive in Dublin this morning, while the news that Keane will arrive today has been taken as confirmation that he will be able to play a central role in both games.

"I spoke to Roy today and he tells me that he will be travelling tomorrow," said McCarthy. "If he says that he will be travelling then I expect him to be fit to play.

"He's doing some training as well as receiving some treatment at Old Trafford which is a positive sign," the Ireland manager added.

"But obviously I can only tell you what he tells me."

Holland and Finnan, meanwhile, were forced to sit out the squad session after receiving minor knocks at the weekend but McCarthy made it clear that he has no reservations about the fitness of either player for Saturday's game.

Of more concern has been Sunderland's Kevin Kilbane who hasn't played any football since October 10th when a bad connection with an attempted shot forced him to limp out of the Premiership game with Manchester United.

The winger, though, said yesterday that he felt comfortable with the work he had done in the session.

"I felt a little stiff," he admitted, "but after such a long time out that's only natural.

"At this stage I am very confident that I will be 100 per cent. It will be a big relief to make it because I don't want to miss the match. This sort of game is precisely the sort of reason that you want to play football in the first place and particularly after the disappointments of the last two playoffs everybody is desperate not only to take part in this one but also to make sure that we win it."

Reid, who looks to be McCarthy's most likely option on the left flank in the event that Kilbane was to miss out also managed to take part yesterday and while a back and now hamstring problem continues to trouble the young Millwall midfielder he too confirmed that he expects to be fit.

With Mark Kennedy, another of McCarthy's usual options on the wings, ruled out of the equation for Saturday's game the manager yesterday called Bolton's Farrelly into his squad and it is hoped that the 26-year-old who earned the last of his six international caps in the USA last summer will arrive in time for this morning's training game against an Eircom League selection.

"He will be in either late tonight or early tomorrow morning," said McCarthy, who admitted that matters were complicated slightly by the fact that the Dubliner had been in Spain with his club when he received the call to travel home.

The Iran coach, Miroslav Blazevic insisted yesterday that Ireland will go into the two-match tie with his side as "absolute favourites" in the wake of their victory over The Netherlands.

"They don't have any weaknesses," he said. "And Leeds are one of the best sides in Europe. Leeds are top of the table in England and the backbone of the side comes from Leeds," he added to illustrate his point.

Asked about what it is that he feared most about the Republic's side he said: "Their strength is in their togetherness, their traditional resistance. But we have our own weapons, the willingness to take on and beat favourites."

Despite that Blazevic remarked that "our chances are not too big".

The former Croatia manager appears to have no injury problems in the build-up to the game although yesterday he was still waiting on the outcome of an appeal against the suspension of Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht, the midfielder, who has already missed two games for allegedly kicking the goalkeeper of Bahrain in Iran's last group game of the Asian qualifiers.

The manager expects to receive news of the appeals outcome later today and remarked yesterday that "I hope they will decide in his favour".

RT╔, meanwhile, announced yesterday that they secured the live television rights for tomorrow week's play-off second leg in Tehran.