Soccer:Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has given his strongest indication yet that James McClean will be in his Euro 2012 squad when he names it on Monday week. The Sunderland winger, who scored his fifth goal of the season against Bolton yesterday, is "90 to 99 per cent" certain to be on the plane according to the Italian.
Speaking to reporters in Mullingar yesterday, after a visit to Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo, Trapattoni suggested that McClean was almost certainly in his plans while James McCarthy and Darron Gibson are also likely among his travelling party.
“In my head, I know my 23 players,” he said. “McClean has a 90 to 99 per cent chance of going to Poland. Of the rest, I cannot say too much. Some may pick up an injury.”
Trapattoni was well aware of McClean’s latest telling intervention since making the breakthrough at the Stadium of Light, further pressing his case for inclusion. "McClean plays with a bit of luck," he explained. “Sometimes he doesn’t play well but gets the opportunity to score a goal.
"So when he plays not very well but he still has this opportunity. And that is important. Some managers think about these lucky players. But I don't think about him because he is lucky. But because he wants to make the squad."
Trapattoni received a further boost yesterday when central defender Richard Dunne started Aston Villa’s 0-0 draw at West Brom on his return from a fractured collar bone. Trapattoni has monitored the 32-year-old Dunne’s progress since his misfortune struck in February.
“I was worried. I said, ‘Be careful, we need you’," he added. “He will be important for us. All players in the squad are important, but especially Richard Dunne. For us, he is one of the strongest.”
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