GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI has suggested for the first time that Blackburn Rovers midfielder Steven Reid may not ever fully recover from the knee ligament problems that have blighted his career in recent times.

The 28-year-old has played just two League Cup games for the Ewood Park outfit since the summer and has not featured for the Republic of Ireland since the 0-0 draw against Montenegro in Podgorica more than a year ago.

The Republic of Ireland manager said yesterday he had talked with the player three months ago, at which stage Reid was hoping to return for the qualifying game against Cyprus in September.

More than a month on, however, the problem persists and Trapattoni acknowledged yesterday that, like Tottenham’s Ledley King, the midfielder may struggle to ever achieve a sustained period of full fitness again.

“With Steve Reid it’s a bad injury, it’s the cartilage,” he said. “We hope he comes back but my opinion is that it’s very, very difficult.

“In his situation you can get to the stage where you play one game and then spend the next on the bench or in the stand.

“The problem for Steven is that the cartilage is gone and the bone is rubbing against bone. Ten, 20, even 50 years ago, there were injections available that would allow cartilage to be covered up, but they’ve banned them because they’re very dangerous.

“But very seldom does cartilage heal normally. So I am worried. He is very important for us and I pray that he will be okay but my experience is the players who have this injury during their careers, play a couple of games, experience problems and have to stop. Still, I hope he comes back.”

The manager compared Darron Gibson to Reid yesterday and expressed the hope that the Derry man can continue to progress at Manchester United.

He said that while Gibson missed the last two games of the group stages, he should be back for the play-offs and that he is happy with his current options in central midfield.

QPR, meanwhile, expect to have news on the seriousness of Martin Rowlands’s injury today. The 30-year-old midfielder was carried off during the first half of Wednesday’s game at Croke Park and Trapattoni said yesterday he has damaged his cruciate ligaments for the second time in less than a year.

“It’s a pity about Rowlands,” said the Italian. “He will have a scan but the first impression is that it’s like the last injury, the cruciate.”

His club’s physio, Paul Hunter, said the scan would provide a better idea of the scale of the problem.

“We’ll know more when we get the results,” he said. “It’s too early to speculate at this stage as to the seriousness of the problem. We’ll know more in the next 24 hours.”

Meanwhile, Trapattoni said efforts will be stepped up in the search for players eligible to appear for the Republic of Ireland.

Among those mentioned was Tottenham defender Kyle Naughton, who has appeared for England at under-21 level.