'Fit' Given is in safe hands with coach Kelly

SOCCER:According to his goalkeeping coach, wild horses wouldn't stop the Irish number one from lining out, writes EMMET MALONEin Sopot

IT MAY have been only the third press conference he’s done in a 16-year association with the Republic of Ireland squad, joked Alan Kelly, but the former international goalkeeper seemed almost pleased to get a run-out yesterday at the Irish media hotel.

The late call-up came after manager Giovanni Trapattoni had surprised everyone on Tuesday night, including players and Uefa apparently, by cancelling yesterday’s training and mixed zone sessions, but it was especially timely amid speculation regarding the fitness of Shay Given.

By the time Kelly (43) had finished he had effectively quashed rumours that Trapattoni had been felled by a player revolt and Given had been ruled out of the tournament with a calf strain.

Bad news is a big seller in this game but there was never any chance of such an eventuality with the affable Kelly.

On Given he was adamant. The Aston Villa goalkeeper is on course to play this Sunday and has been frustrated by the coaching staff’s decision to limit his involvement in training to keep him in the best possible shape.

To date, his preparations for Euro 2012 have been interrupted by a knee problem, blisters and now a calf strain. However, Kelly insisted, as one who knows the player better than anybody, it would a combination of all three and more to prevent him playing against Croatia in Poznan.

“Look, he says, “once you get a little niggle with the knee, as he did, you’re going to get some compensatory issues when you come back training, which he did. But anyone who saw his performance the other night, the saves he made, they wouldn’t question his fitness, his form or how sharp he is. He wouldn’t be able to do that if he wasn’t fit.

“Wild horses wouldn’t keep him off that pitch,” he said, “but you have to be careful about these things. Shay is like a force of nature.

“ I roomed with him and now I’m coaching him, and I say: ‘Look at me, I walk funny and my hands are gnarled, so let’s just calm down a bit.’ From my point of view as a coach, it’s saying ‘I know what you’re going through; I know what you’ve been through but let’s just rein back. Sometimes, less is more.’ ”

Kelly knows from experience how desperate players can get to be involved and recalls playing in one club game with a broken finger after having a dozen injections and a cast place around it. “But times have moved on and you evolve with it. And in Shay’s case in particular – and with the various niggles that he’s had – it is about management.

“He probably has set programmes where he likes to tick certain boxes and have things ready for a game during training. He’s still ticking those boxes now but not as many times, not doing so many reps.”

Pressed on the matter, he insisted Given would have been fit to play last night if the game was then and that he will definitely train between now and Sunday.

“No question about it,” said Kelly. It may not be this morning, though, as decisions on what is best for the goalkeeper, and all of the other players, are taken on “a day-to-day basis”.

Kelly was the one telling us all of this largely because Trapattoni had shut up shop for the day, sparking suggestions he was forced to back down in the face of public protests from players who were fed up working so hard on the training ground.

In truth neither Aiden McGeady’s nor Keith Andrews’s remarks about feeling slightly tired on Monday came across like that and the manager does not, in any case, have a reputation for surrendering to player pressure. However, he may well have been influenced by questions inspired by their comments that were put to him after Tuesday’s session.

“I think the day off probably made sense in the context of the club football that most of our players are involved in. If they have a game on a weekend, they’d often have a Wednesday off,” said Kelly. “For me, though, the shutdown was the result of an assessment of yesterday, the travelling and of conversations he would have had with players. To say they [the conversations] don’t happen wouldn’t be right.

“But it wouldn’t be a good thing just to have a really rigid structure. He’d made a judgment call and that was that this should be a day off. But he has a very good relationship with the players and that’s why we’ve got a good unity within the squad. I think they were surprised by the decision but pleased by it.”