Mike Evans, the latest English-born player to express an interest in representing the Republic of Ireland, hopes to be in a position to establish his Irish qualifications shortly. Mick McCarthy has no plans to name the Southampton forward in his squad for the forthcoming World Cup game against Romania, when he goes public with his selection at a press conference next Wednesday.
"I have no designs of including him for the Romanian game but after watching him play for Southampton against Liverpool last Saturday, I think he may have something to offer," he said." He's a big lad who puts himself about a bit and his record shows that he can score"
"I don't think there will be any big problem in proving his Irish lineage on his grandmother's side for I understand the woman is still alive. But at this stage, there is not much point in rushing things." Evans, 24, who scored 12 times in each of his last two seasons with Plymouth, joined Southampton last January and with four goals, made an important contribution to their survival in the Premiership.
Whether, in fact, that qualifies him as a potential international striker is another matter but with Jon Goodman yet to resume full training after a cruciate operation and doubts about Niall Quinn's medium term future, McCarthy is anxious to explore all options.
Quinn, recovering from the latest in a series of knee problems, is still a long way from full fitness and plans another visit to a specialist in Bradford within the next ten days.
"That should tell me where I'm at and where I'm going," he said. The only thing I'm doing at the moment is light work in the gym and some swimming and I won't really know how my knee is recovering until I do some running and turning."
Quinn's latest brush with injury is one of the reasons why McCarthy sent off a fax message to the 17-year-old Everton player, Danny Cadamarteri and his club manager, Howard Kendall after reading in a paper last Monday that the player has Irish qualifications.
In this instance, it seems that the player is qualified for four other countries, England, Italy, Nigeria and Jamaica and in those circumstances, it is not surprising that McCarthy's message has so far gone unanswered by either Cadamarteri or Kendall.
A team of Russian officials will take charge of Ireland's game against Romania while the Hungarian, Vencel Toth will referee the Under 21 European Championship meeting of the countries at United Park, Drogheda on October 10th.
Shelbourne striker Dessie Baker has been rewarded for his performances in the European Cup Winners' Cup tie against Kilmarnock last month by being named the Opel Soccer Writers Association of Ireland player of the month for August, the first award of the new season.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)