Robbie Keane and Anthony Pilkington out of Ireland friendly

Robbie Keane and Anthony Pilkington have been ruled out of Friday's friendly international against Switzerland at the Aviva stadium with both players failing to recover from injuries that have prevented them from training over the last few days.

“Robbie’s still sore,” said Martin O’Neill at his pre-match press conference at the stadium. “He got a bit of a knock in his game at the weekend and he’s taking a little bit longer to get over it than he expected. He problebly won’t be available for tomorrow evening but we’ll look at it again over the weekend.”

Pilkington’s problem, he said, is unrelated the underlying difficulties he has with his knee that require him to follow a very specific training regime. He too will be reassessed over the weekend with a view to him coming back into contention for the game against Slovakia on Tuesday but the northerner acknowledged that the persistent issues regarding his fitness would be a factor when it comes to weighing up whether the Cardiff City winger should make the squad for France. “It is an issue, yes.”

O’Neill confirmed that a number of the squad’s less experienced players will get chances to play against the Swiss but, he suggested, some face an uphill task to actually force their way into the squad for the finals at the expense of players who have played a part in qualifying.

“One or two wwill be involved,” he said. “One will start, maybe more, then we’ll look to use others over the course of the game. Let’s be fair, though, the players who are coming in late have a bit to do. Everything would have to go pretty well for them individually bit it’s not impossible, it’s happened before. The door is open.

Belarus look set to provide the opposition for Ireland when they play in Cork on May 31st. The FAI declined to comment on questions about the identity of the opponents at the press conference but did not deny that it would be Belarus who are playing Northern Ireland in Belfast the previous Friday evening.

O’Neill, meanwhile, is likely to face criticism over comments made to the media when he was asked about the issue of players’ wives and girlfriends being allowed access to the squad while it is in France.

“Well, I think it depends on how good looking the girls are,” he said. “If they are really attractive, they are very, very welcome. The uglier ones, I’m afraid not.”