SOCCER:JOHN O'SHEA will have to convince Giovanni Trapattoni he is fit enough to play a part at the European Championships by the time the Republic of Ireland play Hungary in Budapest next week, the manager said prior to departing with his squad for Italy yesterday morning.
The Irish team completed its first training session yesterday in Montecatini. Kevin Foley returned to full training while O’Shea and Shay Given were reported as continuing “to make progress with their rehabilitation.” Paul McShane sat out training with a bruised heel and will be reviewed before the next training session to decide if he can return today.
Having been forced to sit out Saturday’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, there is still no sign of O’Shea playing a meaningful part in the team’s preparations for the tournament and Trapattoni hinted that he is becoming sceptical that the 31-year-old will be fit enough to feature.
Paul Green flew out of Dublin with the squad after Keith Fahey aggravated his groin injury in the pre-match warm-up at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and was obliged to admit defeat in his race to return to full fitness. O’Shea’s status as one of the team’s most established and experienced stars will, at the very least, buy him more time but Trapattoni suggested that next Monday’s evening’s friendly is now a key deadline for the Waterford man.
“I think we can play O’Shea in Hungary,” said Trapattoni yesterday. “He assured me that he can be ready but we wait because in Budapest he must play. Yesterday, I preserved him, like Given. I said that I would not take any risk. But in Hungary he must show that he can be fit because if not we still have time to make a change, to look at our other options.”
As recently as Thursday night the player had seemed quite relaxed about the situation, suggesting that criticism of his decision to play in Sunderland’s concluding match of the season against Manchester United had been “blown out of proportion”, and predicting that he would be fit enough to train with the rest of the squad within a matter of days.
“I was fit for the game. It just so happened that I went over on it (the ankle) again. It was just one of those things but thankfully it’s not too serious. It’s responding well now. I’ve been doing a lot of work with Ciarán the physio over the last couple of days. I’ve been twisting and turning and sprinting and jogging and doing a bit more ball work,” he continued. “Fingers crossed I’ll be back training early next week.”
His manager sounded far less confident of that yesterday and having previously emphasised that he could make a change to his official squad of 23 right up until the morning of the Croatia game, as long as it is prompted by injury, he appeared to be leaning strongly towards making an earlier call on the situation. The Italian would not have to look far for O’Shea’s replacement with McShane already a part of the squad having been called in to play on Saturday. The loss of his first choice right-back, though, would clearly be a major blow given the severity of the tests the team faces in Poland.
Green, he seemed to strongly suggest yesterday, could feature against Spain although the manager said that things would become clearer once the Croatia game is out of the way and he has a better idea what the team must aim for against the reigning world and European champions.
“Paul Green is a particular type of player,” he said. “I know you (the media) don’t like him because you only like the players who (mimed playing the violin to suggest more creative types) but in every team there is an example of this type: Italy have (Gennaro) Gattuso. Teams need players with mentality, not just play-makers.
“Green can do this – stop others playing – and that is important for us. He has this quality and against Spain it is what I need maybe. But we will see what happens against Croatia because until then I cannot be sure what we will need against Spain. Sure, I have an idea but you can’t ask me what I will have for lunch or dinner in 50 days time and it is the same with a team.”
Trapattoni, meanwhile, reacted a little contemptuously when asked about questions posed in recent newspaper articles by former Irish captains Roy Keane and Andy Townsend regarding Aiden McGeady’s club form and current status as an automatic starter for Ireland.
“For me,” he said, “the first thing is that maybe they don’t follow the Russian league. And secondly . . . I played the football . . . And I wish to ask them: did they always play well? From the moment that they were born, did they play beautifully in every game? They did so for their whole careers? I don’t feel the need to answer to these ex-players.”
McGeady, he added, had grown hugely in maturity and confidence over the course of his four years in charge, and, in particular, since he joined Spartak Moscow nearly two years ago. “Ryan Giggs, at the age of 20, was a different player to what he is now. There is,” he concluded, “the evolution of players.”
