No early return for Babb or Kennedy

The return to action at club level of several established members of Mick McCarthy's panel has broadened the Republic of Ireland manager's options ahead of this afternoon's naming of his squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers away to Portugal and at home to Estonia.

Keith O'Neill, Lee Carsley and Stephen McPhail are again serious contenders for places in the squad after getting some first-team games under their belts. But perhaps more important to McCarthy will be the return to fitness of Andy O'Brien whose availability will provide the Irish manager with desperately needed cover for the centre of his defence.

With Kenny Cunningham still four weeks away from a return to serious training and Phil Babb expected to be excluded along with Mark Kennedy from any involvement with the international set-up until after their court appearance next month, McCarthy remains hard pressed for recognised central defenders. After their heroics in Amsterdam, Gary Breen and Richard Dunne are in a strong position to continue their partnership against the Portuguese but O'Brien's return will nevertheless strengthen his hand. Otherwise there is unlikely to be too many changes from the party which travelled to the Netherlands although O'Neill's current brush with match fitness could also be an important boost for McCarthy. Niall Quinn's performance in the Amsterdam Arena underlined again the difficulty the big Dubliner has getting through 90 minutes at this level while David Connolly looked entirely lost when left alone up front.

O'Neill rarely plays in an advanced role at Middlesbrough but he should be capable of slotting in there for Ireland while there would also be the option of employing him down the left flank in the event that Kevin Kilbane has to be replaced.

In midfield Carsley should come into the reckoning after a more settled spell at Blackburn where he has, at his own request, been on the transfer list. The 26-year-old was omitted from McCarthy's final travelling party of 22 for Holland largely because of a lack of match fitness caused by a three-match ban carried over from before the summer. Since then he has made six appearances for Blackburn and has reportedly performed well enough to attract interest from Coventry City.