Butler is latest forced out

Thomas Butler has been forced to pull out of the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad for their back-to-back European Championship qualifiers in Georgia and Albania.

The Sunderland midfielder - one of only two players left in the squad with a senior cap to his name - suffered a torn calf muscle in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at West Ham and did not travel with Don Givens's squad.

"It is a blow," admitted Givens. "You invariably get one or two injuries - but it doesn't help when you lose somebody who would have been in your starting XI.

"We'll just have to get on with it, and it gives some of the other players the chance to show what they can do and stake a claim for the future."

Like the senior team, the under-21s lost both opening qualifying matches, against Russia and Switzerland.

Givens believes his team need to win all of their remaining six matches if they are to have a chance of qualifying for next year's knockout stages.

Preparations for the 19-strong squad are not helped, however, by the fact that they have very little time to acclimatise to both countries in which they play in the next five days.

The under-21s face Georgia in the Boris Paichadze National Stadium tomorrow afternoon, less than 24 hours after arriving in the capital city. The Irish party then flies on to Tirana on Monday evening, and the youngsters play Albania the following afternoon.

"It will be very difficult because the preparations are not the best, but we understand the logistics of what has to be done," said Givens.

"I 've told my boys to expect the worst from the pitches because they are not going to be great. That will hinder us a little bit, because we like to pass the ball. We may have to change the way we play, depending on the state of the pitch. We are in a similar position to the senior squad in that we probably have to win all our games.

"But we are capable of doing that if we sustain the good periods of play we have and our concentration over the 90 minutes - which we have not done lately.

"We have had little lapses in our last couple of games, and that has cost us dearly."