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Soccer:The injury concerns continue to mount for Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni after Darren O'Dea was taken to hospital for scans after shipping a heavy knock during training in Malahide today.
The Ipswich Town defender was found to have suffered a minor strain to his knee and the injury will be reassessed in the morning by the FAI medical team ahead of the forthcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers with Armenia and Andorra.
Paul McShane is not available, for the Armenia match at least, as he struggles to recover from a hamstring problem. McShane will return to Hull for treatment on the injury and could rejoin the squad over the weekend.
Neither player was likely to start but their absence will severely limit Trapattoni’s options in central defence. With that in mind, the sight of Richard Dunne sitting on the bench during today’s session was slightly worrying but assistant manager Marco Tardelli stressed there was no cause for concern.
“Richard is okay, no problem,” he told reporters. “He stayed on the bench because he played on Sunday and so he took a rest.”
Keith Andrews, Damien Duff and Keith Treacy have already been ruled out of the Armenia game but there was better news for the Italian as Aidan McGeady took a full part in training this morning. The Irish winger, who has yet to feature for new club Spartak Moscow, is approaching full fitness following an ankle problem.
With Andrews not available, Derby’s Paul Green is in line for a first competitive start alongside Glenn Whelan but, with Darron Gibson also in contention, Tardelli was keeping his counsel this afternoon.
“It will be a big decision. We have big options and the boss will decide,” he said. “At the moment they can all play. (It will be a) very difficult match. Armenia is growing and at home they are very dangerous.We need to press because the Armenian players are very quick.
“For me it is a very important match because it is our first match and it is an away match that it is possible to win. If we win there then we can take six points from the two games.”
Ireland open their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign in Yerevan this Friday (4pm Irish time) before returning to Dublin ahead of Tuesday's home match against Andorra.