Kevin Kilbane's first appearance in the Republic of Ireland's senior squad was in some doubt yesterday after he had been injured on club duty for West Brom on Saturday. Playing in their away game at Ipswich, Kilbane was replaced within 27 minutes of the kick-off and may now struggle to be ready to join the squad when they travel to Reykjavik on Thursday for their World Cup meeting with Iceland 48 hours later.

Nor is that the end of McCarthy's problems. David Kelly also made an early exit from Saturday's club programme in England, lasting just 12 minutes before being replaced by John Aldridge in Tranmere Rovers' 2-0 home defeat by Middlesbrough.

Like Kilbane, however, he hasn't yet contacted McCarthy about his injury and the manager interprets this as an encouraging sign. "If the injuries were serious, I imagine I would have heard by now, for bad news tends to travel fast," he said.

Disturbingly, too, Alan Kelly failed to make his expected return to Sheffield United's first team on Saturday after recovering from his recent back trouble. Instead, Simon Treacy retained his place for the visit to Huddersfield and kept a clean sheet in a draw.

It's not likely to affect Kelly's chances of joining the national squad in Iceland but it improves Shay Givens's prospects of retaining the goalkeeper's sweater for the meeting with Iceland and the game against Lithuania which follows.

Members of the 25-man squad are due to report at their Dublin headquarters tomorrow for the start of their build-up to the World Cup games but all the indications are that the First Division players, due to assist their clubs in tomorrow evening's championship programme, will be given permission to delay their arrival here until Wednesday.

Ray Houghton, the Reading player-manager, is due to lead out his team against QPR; Alan McLoughlin and Keith O'Neill will be on opposite sides in the meeting of Portsmouth and Norwich City at Fratton Park; and Curtis Fleming, Alan Moore and Andy Townsend (Middlesbrough), Niall Quinn (Sunderland) and David Kelly (Tranmere) are also involved. However there is a chance that all the games will be postponed because of Princess Diana's death.