MICK McCARTHY is set to address the strange case of Gary Kelly's fall from favour as one of the Republic of Ireland's most highly rated players within the next few weeks.

McCarthy is scheduled to announce, at the end of the month, his squad of 20 for the World Cup warm up game against Wales at the Arms Park on February 11th.

In the intervening period, he plans to check out the form of a number of players - and the Leeds United defender is one of them.

"Part of my job is to monitor the form of players on the fringe of the squad, and obviously Gary Kelly fits that category," he said. "Although he has not yet played for me, he's never been far from my thoughts and, in fact, I tried to call him up for one of our games before Christmas.

"I've never at any stage discounted him from my plans, no more than I've discounted any player with a contribution to make to the team. And I shall be going along between this and the end of the month to see how he's making out with Leeds."

There was a time when Kelly's name was one of the first down on paper in Ireland team selections after Jack Charlton had identified his talent at a relatively early stage of his career.

That was in the approach to the World Cup finals in the United States, and it is a measure of Charlton's admiration of the player that for the ill fated meeting with Holland in Orlando, he was accommodated in the team at the expense of no less a player than Den is Irwin.

Kelly continued to hold his place at right back for the duration of the European Championship qualifying programme which followed. But then, curiously, began to drift from favour on McCarthy's appointment to replace Charlton last April.

In fairness, that had more to do with a loss of form than the change in management structures and the different evaluations which followed. At the time, the player, still only 21, had been playing non stop for almost three years, and with Leeds United in sharp decline in the closing phase of Howard Wilkinson's reign as manager, it showed in the disappointing quality of Kelly's performances at Elland Road.

With the arrival of George Graham as Wilkinson's replacement, however, and the improvement in the knee problem which had troubled him at recurring intervals last season, the Irishman is now a lot closer to the form which once made him so indispensable at club and international level.

That has been reflected in an ever increasing contribution to Leeds' revival, and last Saturday he was named as Graham's Man of the Match when they crushed Leicester City 3-0 at Elland Road.

"I believe that Gary's problems were nothing more than a backlog of tiredness and the strain of playing two games a week for such a long period," said Graham.

"The team generally is now a lot tighter than was the case at the start of the season and I think he has had a big input into that. We're still working on our defence, and as the club's record improves so, too, will his chances of getting back into the Ireland team."

Graham, a master of defensive strategies during his time in charge of Arsenal, is and will be an important part of Kelly's rehabilitation. But ultimately it is the player himself who will influence the timing of his return to international competition.

"My policy is to reward players who are playing well at any particular time and go with the side which I feel is the most likely to deliver on the day," said McCarthy.

McCarthy confirmed that he will also be watching Paul McGrath, one of the most proven of all Ireland players, before announcing his squad for the Welsh fixture.

Unlike Kelly, McGrath has twice appeared in Ireland teams since McCarthy came to power, but given that the last of these was against the Czech Republic at Prague in April, he, too, is in urgent need of reassurance by the manager.

In McGrath's absence, McCarthy has changed both the system and the personnel involved in the perceived need to improve his defence and awarded McGrath's old position to Gary Breen.

Now with Breen injured and likely to face a big challenge to reimpose himself at the centre of Birmingham City's defence on his recovery, the long arm of opportunity could again be reaching out to the veteran Derby County player.