Mary Hannigan looks at the prospects for the Irish contingent for the new season and how their performances may affect Mick McCarthy's plans

If it can be assumed that pitting your defensive wits against the likes of Thierry Henry, Michael Owen and Ruud van Nistelrooy, rather than those who fill the attacking berths for Walsall or Grimsby, is a more useful way of preparing yourself for international football, then, on the eve of the new English Premiership season, Mick McCarthy can deem himself well satisfied.

When he named his 25-man squad for next week's friendly against Finland, McCarthy included eight defenders (nine if you don't categorise Spurs' Gary Doherty as a forward), all of whom will be playing Premiership football this season.

Three of them, Kenny Cunningham, Gary Breen and Richard Dunne, went to the World Cup as First Division players but, through transfers and promotion, are back playing where their international manager would most want to see them earn their keep.

Phil Babb, too, has returned to the Premiership, following his free transfer from Sporting Lisbon to Sunderland, but whether that move encourages McCarthy to end the player's international exile remains to be seen.

The departure of Ronnie Johnsen, the injury to Wes Brown, Laurent Blanc's legs (which will be 37 in November) and the continuing inexplicable presence at Old Trafford of David May could also conspire to see John O'Shea notch up a healthy number of first-team appearances for Manchester United this season - and, if he does, he should return to the senior Irish squad, from which he was excluded last week.

Stephen Carr's pre-season return from injury was also good news for McCarthy, although he now has the tricky task of deciding if the Spurs right back should dislodge Steve Finnan from the Irish starting line-up. Ian Harte will hope that Finnan's versatility doesn't see him take up residence in the left-back slot.

Another right back, Jeff Kenna, might be unlikely to earn an international recall at this stage of his career but he is, at least, back in the Premiership with Birmingham City, the club he captained to play-off success at the end of last season.

Carr, Finnan, Breen and company will, at some stage this season, come up against Clinton Morrison who finally secured his much touted move to a Premiership club when he signed for Birmingham.

Morrison, on the whole, found goals easy to come by in the First Division; if he can surmount defensive obstacles of the calibre of Rio Ferdinand, Sami Hyppia, Marcel Desailly, et al, en route to goal this season, he can probably look forward to a prolonged international partnership with Robbie Keane, with Damien Duff returning to left-wing duties. If he fails, Birmingham will most probably go down and he'll find himself on international bench duty, again.

Of the young brigade, Arsenal's Graham Barrett, Blackburn's Jonathan Douglas, Liverpool's Richie Partridge, Sunderland's Clifford Byrne and Michael Reddy, West Brom's Joe Murphy (the goalkeeper who joined from Tranmere) and West Ham's Shaun Byrne will all hope for a breakthrough into first-team football this season, but most will probably require a loan move if they are to see anything but reserve team action in the new campaign.