Soccer: Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has delivered a positive prognosis on his knee injury but ruled himself out of the Euro 2012 warm-up game against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday.
The Aston Villa player travelled to England today to seek reassurance from knee specialist Andy Williams on whether a niggling injury was a cause for concern ahead of the European Championships. Mercifully, for him and Ireland, he met with “good news”.
“Just gotta rest for a few days and then back training next week,” he tweeted. “Thanks for all the kind messages.”
Williams has been in contact with the Irish medical team and agrees with their diagnosis and recovery management plan, so Given is expected to return to full training on Wednesday.
His absence on Saturday will mean Keiren Westwood is likely to marshal a makeshift defence, with John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger and Kevin Foley already ruled out.
O’Shea trained today, taking part in drills with Foley, for the first time since joining the squad on Sunday with an ankle injury he sustained on the last day of the season.
Keith Fahey, however, is in contention to be named in Giovanni Trapattoni’s side tomorrow afternoon after he played a full part in training with the rest of the squad, something he had been waiting to do since last week when he reported early with a groin strain.
The first-choice central defensive pairing of Dunne and St Ledger today continued their respective recoveries from injuries the manager maintains will not cause problems next month.
The defensive unit at the weekend, then, will be a long way off the one that would have been anticipated just days ago. Paul McShane, who was called up to the squad yesterday, looks set to join Stephen Kelly, Darren O’Dea and Stephen Ward in a back four guarding the goal of Keiren Westwood.
Midfielder Glenn Whelan, who was married on Saturday and joined up with the squad on Monday, sat out training, but only because of a sore throat and he is expected to be in Trapattoni’s plans for the visit of Bosnia.
McShane could yet find himself on the plane to Poland after initially being on a standby list of five players when the party for Euro 2012 was named.Trapattoni has revealed he will probably join the party for next week’s training camp in Montecatini, Italy, and the friendly against Hungary in Budapest which follows it, and may yet head for Poland.
The 73-year-old said: “He will probably come with us because we need one more. We may take 25 to Italy; it’s no problem.” Asked if he would be retained when the squad heads for its tournament base in Gdynia on June 5th, Trapattoni replied: “I can ask him then, but before that, we have Hungary.
“Hungary is a very difficult game and maybe we need to give the 23 before. Only with injury, we can decide to change or not.”
Trapattoni has to confirm his final 23-man squad by May 29th, but changes can be made right up until the day of Ireland’s first game - against Croatia in Poznan on June 10th - in the case of injury, provided it is ratified by a committee of Uefa doctors.
In the circumstances, McShane, or indeed any other player, could travel as back-up but then head home if not required, or replace an injured team-mate if permission was granted. Trapattoni also revealed he is not the only man to have received a call with defender Damien Delaney and midfielder Paul Green among those to have been alerted.
He said: “Delaney, Paul McShane; we have other substitutes and they have been contacted. We have called them in case we need them, Paul Green also. But we have time to evaluate the situation.”
