Two of Mick McCarthy's stalwarts, Niall Quinn and Mark Kinsella, joined the Republic of Ireland's casualty list over the weekend when they finally conceded that they had not shaken off recent injury problems in time to play in Wednesday's friendly international against Denmark.
Although Quinn played 90 minutes on Saturday, he has been struggling with an ongoing back problem for much of this season. Kinsella, who has just returned to Charlton's first team again after having an operation over the new year, now has a hamstring problem.
In their place, McCarthy has called Stoke City's Graham Kavanagh into his now 19-strong panel and says he may add another couple of faces over the next day or two.
One player who is still expected to travel to Dublin for the game is Manchester United's Roy Keane, who was substituted towards the end of yesterday's 6-1 defeat of Arsenal with a slight knee injury. That immediately cast doubt over his availability but in a subsequent interview Alex Ferguson said that the injury was not sufficient to prevent the Corkman from travelling and he is expected to join up with the squad this evening after staying on in Manchester for a benefit game.
McCarthy, meanwhile, had been scheduled to travel to the Netherlands yesterday in order to see David Connolly play for Feyenoord. When it was learned, however, that the Irishman would not start the game, the trip was cancelled.
Instead he was in Dublin to take training with the first players to arrive and he said afterwards that he was happy enough with the way the squad is shaping up.
"If Quinny and Mark are injured then they're better off with their clubs and as long as they're back for the Cyprus game I'll be happy enough. It will give me a chance to look at a couple of other lads, particularly up front where I'll be glad of the chance to see somebody else get a run out." said McCarthy.
