Best gets the call as Long unlikely to be fit

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI finally seemed to be coming around yesterday to the idea that Shane Long will not be fit enough for the Euro 2012 play-off games against Estonia with the Italian opting to call up Leon Best as cover for the West Brom striker who Roy Hodgson insists is still several weeks away from fitness.

“Shane is not fit to play,” said Hodgson. “The two doctors are in contact with each other and the Irish doctor knows that he is making good progress and we are working hard with him. But he is way off being fit to play a football match.

“If Giovanni (Trapattoni) wants to see him and invite him over there, then fine, but there is no medical examination which will change what is an obvious verdict. It is going to take some time to heal. The initial suggestion was six weeks and Shane would like it to be quicker than that – but it certainly isn’t going to be two weeks.”

With Kevin Doyle suspended for the first leg and Robbie Keane’s fitness still a concern given his enforced lay-off in the wake of the Andorra match, Best, who admitted this week to having been “baffled” by his repeated omission from the squad for recent games, will significantly add to the manager’s options.

Trapattoni is, however, expected to bring Long in with the rest of the players in order to have him formally assessed and so a definitive decision is unlikely to be made until at least Monday when the squad is scheduled to train for the first time in Malahide.

John O’Shea, meanwhile, is now on course to join up with the squad when it returns from Tallinn with the player said to be optimistic that he can recover from a hamstring problem sustained at the weekend in time to feature in the second play-off leg.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has confirmed that the defender will not be fit enough for this weekend’s encounter with Manchester United or for the first play-off but accepts that his next game might be for Ireland. “It is typical of the luck he’s had, unfortunately, since he’s been here,” said the manager.

“They are probably the two biggest games he has been looking forward to. He might have a chance for the second one, but certainly I would have thought the first game would come a little bit too quickly for him.”