Paul McShane will miss the rest of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign after the Sunderland defender was ruled out for at least three months with a knee injury.

The Wicklow player sustained the injury shortly after scoring in the 4-0 friendly win at Darlington on Thursday night and did not travel with the rest of the first-team squad on their pre-season trip to Portugal.

Tests have now shown McShane needs to have an operation, that will also rule him out of the start of the new Premier League season

Manager Steve Bruce said: “This news is exactly what we didn’t want and now we will be without Paul for a while.”