Belgium have been dealt another major blow prior to next week's play-off game against the Republic of Ireland with the news that Enzo Scifo has been forced to withdraw because of a groin injury.

Belgian boss George Leekens has decided not to gamble on the midfielder's fitness after he missed Tuesday's UEFA Cup away tie against Schalke 04. Leekens has already lost the services of star striker Luis Oliviera.

Meanwhile, Ray Houghton, the Reading player coach, has been cleared to play for his club tomorrow evening before joining Ireland's World Cup squad the following morning.

It clears up a grey area in the interpretation of FIFA's five-day rule governing the release of players for competitive international fixtures.

For some time now, there have been conflicting views on whether this applies to the period before the day of a game, or whether the match day itself is counted as part of the agreement.

For practical reasons, club managers generally get the benefit of the doubt, but given the importance of next Wednesday's playoff against Belgium at Lansdowne Road, McCarthy insisted that all his players arrived on schedule on this particular occasion.

Reading will welcome the decision to exempt Houghton from that requirement for their game against the First Division championship leaders, Nottingham Forest on Friday, is crucial to their hopes of climbing to mid-table respectability.

It is also influenced, no doubt, by the player's remarkable service to the national team, never more powerfully illustrated than in the recent 1-1 draw with Romania at Lansdowne Road. Even if McCarthy refuses to be drawn into speculation about the composition of his team, it is reasonable to assume that Houghton will be assigned a key role.

And providing he escapes a repetition of the injury troubles which forced him out of the World Cup games in Iceland and Lithuania last month, he will have ample time to recover before committing himself to another 90 minutes of non-stop running next Wednesday.

McCarthy confirmed yesterday that the hip injury which Gary Breen sustained during Coventry City's defeat by Barnsley on Monday will not affect his plans for joining the national squad tomorrow.