Ireland missing key players

Ireland will be without three key players when they take on Italy, France and Wales in this weekend's Four Nations women's hockey tournament at Belfield, making it unlikely that the squad for August's European Nations Cup qualifier in Finland will be named, as planned, next week.

Jenny Burke is still troubled by a shoulder injury picked up in the All-Ireland League finals in March, Ards defender Caroline Craig has yet to recover from a virus while Laura Brown is out after breaking a bone in her hand in the first of last weekend's three matches against Scotland in Dundee.

Brown is expected to return to action within a month but Craig, who has played only two competitive matches, both in January with Ards, since last summer's World Cup qualifier, must now be a serious doubt for Helsinki.