Soccer:Republic of Ireland defender Richard Dunne will travel to the United States to receive further treatment on his broken collarbone. Dunne will link up with NFL side the Cleveland Browns as he bids to return to action by the end of April and improve his chances of being fully fit for the Euro 2012 finals.

The Aston Villa centre half is flying out to America to continue his rehabilitation with Cleveland, who are also owned by Villa chairman Randy Lerner. Dunne said: “Because of the nature of American football, Cleveland have a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of injury.

“Any help I can get will be much appreciated. It will also be a great experience and I think it will be a good week. I’m hoping when I come back I’ll be sorted and can push on with things and start training again.”

Dunne added: “Hopefully I can be back before the end of April, that is the aim. But I’ll just have to listen to the doctors here at Villa and see what is actually possible. I trust their judgement and will follow whatever they say.”

Dunne suffered the setback in last month’s home Barclays Premier League clash with his former club Manchester City. Shay Given spoke of Dunne’s importance to the Irish cause at the weekend but full expects his club mate to be on the plane to Poland

“He’s still in a sling, but it’s going according to plan,” said Given. “It was a bad fall, he landed really badly. There was nothing to stop his fall, he landed straight on it and he’s a big guy and coming down from that height as well.

“Hopefully we can get him back fit before the end of the season, because ideally you want him playing a few games before the summer, with such a big summer coming up. I think it would be brilliant if he could get back for Aston Villa and play towards the end of the season and that would stand him in good stead for the summer.”