Shane Long will be given until Wednesday by Martin O'Neill to show significant signs of improvement to his ankle injury and enable him to play a part in Friday's first leg of Ireland's European championship play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica.
“Shane has seen a specialist and got an injection,” said O’Neill on Monday afternoon after the bulk of his 30-man squad trained together for the first time this week at Abbotstown.
“He hasn’t ruled himself out of the game, which is good, but naturally he hasn’t done much work since the Poland game. The next couple of days may tell us just about everything. It would be great if after the injection if he felt his foot was fine and he was ready to go.”
The manager is hoping to see signs of improvement by the middle of the week from several other squad members, most obviously John O'Shea and Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot.
“John is just rehabilitating at Sunderland for the next couple of days, he is improving. Of course, he wouldn’t available for the first game but we’ll monitor him day by day. He’s not feeling too bad. He has a few extra days and we’ll see how he is by Wednesday. Whatever plans we have for Friday night are without John but I wouldn’t yet (rule him out) until we see how he is.
“Rob’s being assessed by a specialist today and we’ll get an update in the morning but he did play very well in the game so if he was available for selection and did actually play the whole game then I think that when it comes to international level, we’re entitled to feel we can assess him too.”
Alan Judge and Paul McShane are also staying on at their clubs for further treatment on injuries while Keiren Westwood has arrived into Dublin but sat out the squad's first session with a foot injury that has been troubling him for some time now.
O’Neill shrugged off the long list of problems observing: “That’s just life. The main thing is that we’ve earned the right to be here; particularly with our results against the world champions. We’ve accumulated the points. I think if you’d have mentioned the possibility all the way back when the group was starting, of having two games, home and away, to qualify, regardless of who was available, I think I’d have taken that.”
