Coleman brought in to cover right side

SOCCER INTERNATIONAL NEWS:SÉAMUS COLEMAN was called into the Irish senior squad for the first time yesterday with the 21-year-old Everton player drafted in by Giovanni Trapattoni following the loss due to injury of Stephen Kelly and Darren O'Dea.

The Donegalman, whose birthday falls between the games against Russia next Friday and Slovakia, the following Wednesday, has narrowly missed out on a number of occasions previously with the manager insisting that he had enough options on the right side of his defence.

As a result Coleman had not been expected to feature until next month when Ireland take on Norway in a friendly game at the Aviva Stadium on the 17th.

Having impressed towards the end of last season while on loan at Blackpool and featured in six games for Everton in the early weeks of the new campaign, the player gets his chance to join up with the squad for two of the qualifying campaign.

Coleman has clearly been called up as defensive cover although he is currently featuring more for his club just now on the right side of midfield where he is expected to start today away to Birmingham City.

Cillian Sheridan and Keith Treacy, both named in Trapattoni’s preliminary panel, have now been put on standby for the squad itself while Marco Tardelli, Trapattoni confirmed yesterday, will be at the game between Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers today to check on the fitness of Keith Andrews, who has yet to play 90 minutes for his club since returning from injury.

Richard Dunne, Trapattoni said, has told him he is fully fit again and expects to play today for Aston Villa at Tottenham.

Scotland manager Craig Levein, meanwhile, says he won’t rule out another approach to James McCarthy regarding his international future as long as the Wigan Athletic midfielder still has the option of switching his allegiance to the country of his birth.

“Every player who is eligible to play for Scotland is on the radar,” he said at the official launch of the Carling Nations Cup in Lansdowne Road yesterday. “I had a conversation with James going back to when I got the job and he indicated he wanted to play for Ireland. But I don’t close the door on anything. We’re not in a position where we have enough quality players to say: ‘Sorry, we don’t want anyone.’ We’re not closing any doors to anybody.”

McCarthy made his senior debut in the friendly against Brazil in March but will not be tied to playing for Ireland until he is capped in a competitive game. He has not made even a squad since pulling out of the one for the games against Algeria and Paraguay due to tiredness at the end of last season.

Dick Advocaat has named a strong squad of 21 for Russia’s trips to Dublin and Macedonia over the coming week and a half. The likes of British-based stars Andrey Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Yuri Zhirkov are all included along with leading players from the Russian league.

There are four changes to the squad named for the games against Andorra and Slovakia last month although none of the side that lost at home to the Slovaks have been omitted.

Aleksandr Kerzhakov, the Zenit St Petersburg striker who has scored hat-tricks in two of his last three outings for the club, is rewarded with a recall 10 months after he was last involved.

NATIONS CUP FIXTURES: Tuesday, February 8th: Republic of Ireland v Wales; February 9th: Northern Ireland v Scotland; Monday, May 23rd: Republic of Ireland v Northern Ireland; May 24th: Wales v Scotland; May 26th: Wales v Northern Ireland; May 27th: Republic of Ireland v Scotland.

RUSSIA SQUAD(v Republic of Ireland and Macedonia): Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Gabulov (Dinamo Moscow), Malafeev (Zenit St Petersburg); Anyukov (Zenit), Berezutski (CSKA Moscow), Berezutski (CSKA Moscow), Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (Chelsea), Parshivlyuk (Spartak Moscow); Bilyaletdinov (Everton), Denisov (Zenit), Zyryanov (Zenit), Shirokov (Zenit), Bystrov (Zenit St Petersburg), Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Mamaev (CSKA Moscow), Semshov (Dinamo Moscow). Arshavin (Arsenal), Kerzhakov (Zenit), Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham), Pogrebnyak (VfB Stuttgart).