Jason McAteer is ready to distance himself from the deepest crisis of his career, with a big performance in the Republic of Ireland's World Cup game in Reykjavik tomorrow.

McAteer, who hasn't started a game for Liverpool since reporting back for pre-season training, said: "My season starts here in Iceland tomorrow - and hopefully, it's going to work in Ireland's favour.

"Old professionals tell me that all players go through a bad time at some stage of their career. I have to take their word for that but in my case, it's been aggravated by the fact that I've struggled at both club and international level.

"At a time when I could have been cushioning my problems at Liverpool with a good run in the Ireland team, I was serving a suspension. And I don't mind admitting that it hurt."

Almost two months into the season and Roy Evans, the Liverpool manager, shows no sign of reverting to last season's judgments which gave the ebullient Ireland player an important role in team strategy.

Now, it seems, Evans is less impressed by McAteer's enterprising running down the right flank and inevitably, it has triggered increasing speculation of an imminent move for the player. Monaco and Newcastle are among the clubs reported to be interested in him but informed opinion is that if he moves and ends his love affair with the club he has supported from boyhood, it will be to Tottenham.

The North London club is known to have established contact with Evans but as yet, that interest has not apparently hardened into a firm offer. "Players are normally the last to be informed of developments in these matters and if Tottenham are prepared to bid, I have not yet been contacted."

On a day when chill winds and falling temperatures greeted the Irish team's arrival in Reykjavik, the dominant topic of conversation was the rash of withdrawals from Mick McCarthy's team.

Among those ruled out is Niall Quinn, but there were reports circulating yesterday that the Sunderland striker, who was withdrawn from the squad after damaging a knee in the 3-1 win over Oxford United on Tuesday, may return for this evening's meeting with Bradford, the First Division leaders.

Paul Bracewell, Peter Reid's assistant at Sunderland, is reported as saying: "Niall will see a specialist in Bradford and if he gets a clearance, he may well be involved in the game. The injury is not related to his previous problems with his knees and is certainly not a long term one".

Just how McCarthy will react if Quinn returns for Sunderland, after being pulled out of a crucial World Cup game, is as yet unclear. That loss could prove serious here but in the event of the player making a satisfactory recovery, he would presumably, be available for the second part of the World Cup programme in Lithuania next Wednesday.

Ray Houghton, another of the senior players whose absence could hang like a millstone around the Irish performance, was in touch with McCarthy yesterday to assure him that there had been an improvement in the thigh strain which forced him out of the squad on Tuesday.

"The arrangement is that he will call me again on Sunday and if he is fit by that stage and I still feel that I need him, I will, of course, invite him to come to Lithuania and join us," McCarthy said. "But at this point, that is mere speculation."

The problem of replacing Houghton's effervescent running in a game in which the traditional priorities may well be reversed for teams playing away from home, remains critical to the game plan and the manager, it seems, is still uncertain as to how best it can be solved.

McCarthy admits that there is no other player with the qualities to replace Houghton in a direct swap. Alan McLoughlin and Mark Kennedy are not wholly dissimilar when given free-running roles behind the strikers, but with McAteer now back in contention, it's just possible that the troubled Liverpool player will be assigned the job of running directly at the home defence.

Other decisions awaited with some interest concern the rival claims of Shay Given and Alan Kelly for the goalkeeper's sweater and, not least, whether Denis Irwin can force his way back into the defence at the expense of Blackburn's Jeff Kenna.

Although bookings suggest that the number of supporters accompanying the team will be down on the figures of recent years, there was still a significant Irish presence on the streets in Reykjavik yesterday. And at least 400 more fans are due here before match time.