Quinn and Holland out of Croatia tie

Republic Of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy will have to cope without both Niall Quinn and Matt Holland for this week's friendly international against Croatia after the pair were forced by injury to withdraw from his squad over the weekend.

McCarthy had intended that both would feature in Wednesday evening's at Lansdowne Road game but he played down the significance of their absence last night.

"The important thing is that they're fit for the Holland game which is when we'll really need then, and as of now there's no reason to suspect that they won't be."

Holland is reported by his club, Ipswich, to have picked up a couple of minor knee and ankle strains during the club's recent visit to Ireland but all the indications are that his withdrawal from the Ireland game is merely a precaution to ensure that he will be fit and ready for next weekend's English Premiership game against Sunderland.

Quinn, however, may miss that game after going over awkwardly on his ankle in a friendly game against NAC Breda over the weekend.

The striker limped out of the game, in which the English side were beaten 5-0, after an hour to be replaced by Kevin Phillips and it is not yet clear at the moment how quickly he will be match fit again.

Sunderland manager Peter Reid had already made it clear, however, that he did not wish Quinn to be too severely tested in Wednesday's game after the succession of back problems the Dubliner suffered from last season and so his role would almost certainly have been severely limited in any case.

In his absence Clinton Morrison is due to get his first opportunity to show what he can bring to the senior Ireland team after making a moderately successful appearances for the under-21s at the end of last season.

McCarthy declined last night to say whether the young Crystal Palace striker would start against the Croatians but confirmed again that he is one of several slightly peripheral players that he is keen to have a look at.

Two others are David Connolly and Lee Carsley, both of whom scored for their clubs in England on Saturday. Connolly, passed over before the summer by McCarthy in Estonia where the manager dropped Robbie Keane but chose to play Damien Duff in a rather unfamiliar striking role, will be hoping that a run of form with his new club Wimbledon and perhaps a solid showing this week at Lansdowne Road might help him to jump back up a couple of places in the pecking order.

McCarthy, meanwhile, admits that Carsley is probably next in line for the central midfield slot alongside Roy Keane in the event that Holland was to join Mark Kinsella on the injured list for the Dutch game. However, the manager says he hopes to give Stephen McPhail, Jason McAteer and Steve Finnan runs as well.

"I'll give as many of them I can a game because it makes sense for me to see how they all are but we'll leave it another day or two before talking about who starts the game and who comes into it at some stage later on.

"I'd also like to use the game to give some of the younger lads a chance and so there'll be a lot of changes over the course of the game with as few as possible having to sit the night out."

That may well mean a senior debut, too, for Millwall's Stephen Reid, who was outstanding for the under-21s in Estonia and who was another of the Irish scorers at club level over the weekend.

As of last night McCarthy said that only one Premiership manager, Spurs' Glenn Hoddle, had been in contact to discuss how a player was going to be used in the game. "But he was checking to see whether I intended using Gary Doherty for the full 90 minutes because they're out in Greece at the moment and it's 90 degrees out there so he said they'd have to look after him a bit if he wasn't to be tired coming over the us. I assured him I had no intention of playing for the whole game and that was the end of that."

Robbie Fowler left the Millennium Stadium an unhappy man after been dropped for yesterday's Charity Shield against Manchester United. Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier admitted Fowler's omission had been "my decision", confirming the Anfield skipper was not suffering from an injury. Fowler refused to comment on the situation after the game, other than to admit: "I was dropped."