THE comings and goings of the Republic of Ireland squad in advance of next week's trip to Prague continued apace yesterday. Jason McAteer, having gone the day before, curiously came back again Aston Villa's Gareth Farrelly went while Tommy Coyne and Eddie McGoldrick came in again.

Liverpool manager Roy Evans relented to pleas from Jason McAteer that he be allowed rejoin the Irish squad after he had been pulled out with the nagging knee injury which jeopardised his appearance in Tuesday's Merseyside derby.

Irish manager Mick McCarthy was thankful. "Too often we criticise English clubs for pulling players out of Irish squads and in this instance we should recognise what Liverpool have done for us.

It's unfortunate that McCarthy's far-sighted move to bring some fresh young blood into the squad has backfired with Farrelly following Keith O'Neill's withdrawal 24 hours beforehand.

"It's very disappointing," agreed McCarthy, "because I wanted them to have a look at the set-up and gain some experience of senior international involvement. I was actually going to put one or both of them on the bench and was even considering giving one of them a run-out, but that will have to wait for another day now.

McCarthy said he was happy enough with a revised and reduced squad of 18. "There's not an awful lot else I can do anyway," added the Irish manager, who is confident that 19-year-old goalkeeper Shay Given will be fit enough to travel after his return to the Sunderland squad from injury.

Meanwhile, the former Irish striker John Byrne (35), who has played more than 500 games with six clubs, has been handed a free transfer by second division strugglers Brighton.