Bournemouth's Harry Arter has been ruled out of Ireland's friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia with an achilles strain.

The midfielder picked up the injury during the Cherries’ 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hostpur last weekend.

And he has headed back to his club side for treatment after failing to shake off the problem in time to feature during the Easter double-header.

Arter’s withdrawal from the squad leaves him with a limited window in which he can try to force his way into Martin O’Neill’s plans for Euro 2016.

Ireland have a fixture against Holland on May 27th before their European Championships campaign begins against Sweden on June 13th.

There was also concern on Tuesday over the fitness of Derby County midfielder Jeff Hendrick.