Soccer:Injured Wolves striker Kevin Doyle has set his sights on playing for the Republic of Ireland in three internationals at the end of the season.

Doyle has virtually ruled himself out of the remainder of Wolves’ battle for Premier League survival with a knee ligament injury suffered on international duty last month.

But he is hoping to return for his country in late May, even though he admits his club boss Mick McCarthy may not be too happy.

Doyle said: “If I don’t play for Wolves again this season, I don’t suppose the manager will be too happy to see me get fit and disappear for my country. But I’m going to try to make it.”

The Republic face Northern Ireland and Scotland in the Carling Nations Cup on May 24th and 29th respectively and then tackle Macedonia in a Euro 2012 qualifier on June 4th.

Wolves switched to a 4-4-2 formation in Doyle’s absence for the past two games and have been thrashed 4-1 by Newcastle and 3-0 by Everton.

But the 27-year-old is adamant the system is not to blame for Wolves’ slide back into the bottom three. He said: “We played 4-4-2 against Liverpool and Manchester City and beat them. It’s not the formation. We’ve played 4-5-1 and been successful. We’ve done it with both formations.”