Injured O'Neill forced to withdraw

Keith O'Neill's troubled international career took another blow yesterday when the Middlesbrough midfielder was forced to withdraw from Mick McCarthy's Republic of Ireland squad just a matter of hours after being informed that he had been called up in place of Niall Quinn.

The 25-year-old had originally been placed on a standby list of players and when Quinn and Dean Kiely were forced to cry off because of injury he and Hibernian goalkeeper Nicky Colgan were the ones to be drafted in to the travelling party for Tuesday's trip to Cyprus.

But Terry Venables is reported to have contacted McCarthy yesterday to inform him that the Dubliner is currently suffering from a back injury and is not in a position to join up with the squad.

In his place McCarthy has now called in Bolton Wanderers midfielder Gareth Farrelly, another 25-year-old Dubliner who returned to the Ireland team during the summer after a long absence when he came on as a substitute in the friendly game against the USA.

The National league, meanwhile, hopes to confirm its list of fixtures for next week shortly after receiving permission to resume it programme from the Department of Agriculture.

The intention is that in addition to the Harp Lager FAI Cup games that had been scheduled to take place when the foot-andmouth scare first started, there will be a number of refixed league matches leaving only Athlone Town, whose prospective opponents, Dundalk are playing non-league opposition in the cup, without a game.