Soccer:Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni was handed a boost today when midfielder Damien Duff was able to train. The Fulham winger sat out the first two days of preparations for Saturday night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Macedonia with an Achilles problem.
However, while Duff was able to join in with his team-mates at Malahide this morning, defenders Sean St Ledger and Seamus Coleman were missing once again with knee and ankle injuries respectively. Following further assessment, Coleman was later withdrawn from the squad, which is now down to 25.
There has been mixed news on the injury front for Trapattoni this week with Leon Best the latest withdrawal from the squad yesterday. The Newcastle striker was ruled out of the match with an ankle injury and has returned to Newcastle for treatment.
Best’s absence was tempered by the fact that Richard Dunne, who has been missing from the Aston Villa side for the last three weeks with a shoulder problem, is now back in training. His presence at the back is liable to prove vitally important, particularly in the
With Given injured, Coventry goalkeeper Keiren Westwood is in line to win his sixth cap, but his first in a competitive game, and goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly has no worries about the 26-year-old’s readiness to take over Given’s mantle.
He said: “They have both got a pair of boots and a pair of gloves and they both tend to get in the way of the ball, which is a good habit to get into. Listen, every ‘keeper is different, every player is different in terms of what they bring to the table.
“I just look back to the games against Algeria and Paraguay last year and he (Westwood) acquitted himself very, very well. He came for some great crosses and contributed to two fine victories, so that says it all, really.
“He has just got to take what he has done in those two games in the summer and the five caps he has got and transfer that into this game coming up. Okay, there are pounds, shillings and pence on it and the points, and that’s where the pressure comes in, but so far, he has been superb and I have no reason to think that won’t continue.”
Westwood’s club future has been the subject of speculation for some time with his current contract due to expire at the end of the season and several Premier League clubs among his potential suitors. Kelly for one has no doubts that he could play at a higher level.
He said: “You look at the quality that’s around, and he is up there with the best of them. He is out of contract in the summer, so that is going to be very attractive to a lot of clubs, and he has proved himself, and that’s all you ask. When you are pitched into an arena or a situation, you sink or swim, and he has swum very well so far.”
Kelly was in goal the night Ireland lost 3-2 against Macedonia
in Skopje in 1997 and again when a last-gasp Macedonian equaliser denied them automatic qualification for Euro 2000. Memories of those two setbacks have inevitably come flooding back this week and while Kelly can raise a smile now, his emotions were very different at the time.
He said, laughing: “How dare you bring that up? It’s taken me a lot of years of counselling to get over that!”
Asked what he recalled of games which have etched themselves into to the national psyche, Kelly added: “Jason McAteer getting sent off doing a Jackie Chan impression . . . the first time over there, we lost 3-2, two penalties, Jason got sent off. I think Alan McLoughlin scored first and upset them and they came back at us.
“The second one is well documented. Being nine seconds or 12 seconds from qualifying for Euro 2000, it was a sickening blow. When you look back now, you look back on instances and situations in your career, and you think, ‘Nine seconds...‘.
“I had made a save and tipped it for the corner, and I said: ‘Referee, referee, the time?’, and he said, ‘They take the corner, I blow the whistle’. The rest is history. Unfortunately, it didn’t go for us, but that’s life, isn’t it?”
