Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy was finally given a fitness boost ahead of this evening's Euro 2000 play-off second leg with Turkey when Sunderland striker Niall Quinn came through a training session at the Ataturk Stadium last night.
Quinn missed the 1-1 draw on Saturday night when he pulled out just before kick-off with a damaged neck muscle after painkilling injections failed to get him through a late fitness test.
He has not trained in Turkey since the squad's arrival but after an hour's session last night, a clearly relieved McCarthy said: "He looks all right although we'll wait until the morning to make a final decision.
"He should be OK unless he wakes up tomorrow feeling like the tin man and I'm hopeful he'll play."
Quinn is set to take over again in attack from 37-year-old Tony Cascarino, with both players still needing a goal to equal Frank Stapleton's record of 20.
Even with a fit Quinn, the undeniabe fact is the Irish face a huge task to achieve the result which will keep them in the championship. Not even Germany or Holland, teams which on their day would fit the bill as credibe champions of Europe, succeeded in leaving Bursa with a win after being subjected to the rigours of a medieval journey from Istanbul.
In each instance, the Turks won 1-0 and the haunting fear for the Irish is that after missing at least three chances of securing their position at Lansdowne Road, they may now be in danger of going out of the competition on a similar score-line.
After the cruel mishaps in earlier play-offs against Holland in 1995 and Belgium two years later, that is a scenario which few of us care to contemplate at a stage when Ireland needs the profile of competing in the finals of a major championship to give added substance to the renaissance fashioned by McCarthy.
If elimination would not be the ultimate indignity, it would certainly represent a significant setback at this point and as such McCarthy is at pains to stress the positives as he prepares his depleted forces for a massive exercise in character.
"People will remind us that had we not conceded those late goals in Macedonia and Croatia we would have been home and dry by now and of course they're right," he said. "But the reality is that we didn't get the results we deserved then and the challenge now is to put those wrongs to right.
"There are of course easier places to get a result than Turkey. They have some of the noisiest and most passionate supporters in the world. And now with an away goal in the bank they go into the game with an advantage.
"As we discovered at Lansdowne Road last Saturday, however, home advantage, crowd support and all the other things that are supposed to disadvantage visiting teams don't always convert into wins. And this is our big chance to prove it."
With Robbie Keane suspended, and Alan Kelly back at Blackburn being treated for a groin injury, the Ireland manager is ostensibly worse off than last Saturday.
Kelly, inspirational since reclaiming his place in goal from the injured Shay Given this season, is a big loss: and yet in many ways it is the absence of Robbie Keane which gives cause for greater concern.
At a time when McCarthy sought to lighten the mix and blend the precocity of youth with the restraining hand of experience, the 18-year-old Dubliner was one of those summoned for early promotion. Now in his temporary absence there is the evidence of just how how well he succeeded in that mission.
Unquestionably, his ban is a blow and it may yet be compounded by Niall Quinn's neck strain which caused the manager to put off the selection of his team until just before the 6.0 p.m. (Irish time) kick-off.
If Quinn does line out, McCarthy will go with a 4-4-2 formation with David Connolly joining Quinn at the front of the team. If he fails, it will present the manager with some delicate equations as he ponders the option available to him.
By again deploying Tony Cascarino as target man, he would effectively consign Lee Carsley to the bench. The alternative would be to gamble on the diminutive Connolly as a one-man strike force, as he did for the World Cup game with Romania at Bucharest and assign Carsley the job of manmarking Sergen Yalcin in an augmented midfield formation.
What is certain, however, is that Mark Kinsella will be back from suspension to join Roy Keane in central midfield. That should improve the quality of the running from midfield and perhaps inspire Keane to the kind of form which enriched Ireland and Manchester United last season.
Despite suffering occasionally at the feet of Hakan Unsul last Saturday, Stephen Carr will keep his place at right back and after the uncertainty of recent days Kenny Cunningham and Gary Breen look likely to form the centre of the defence.
Like McCarthy, Mustaf Denizli has decided on a alte team announcement. In his case, there are no injury doubts, only the fear that by naming his team first he will confer some kind of advantage on the opposition. Word from the Turkish insiders, however, is that Arif Erdem, who was introduced as a half time replacement in Dublin, will now be in from the start to join Hakan Sukur in a 4-4-2 formation.
The appointment of the match referee is invariably seen as significant on these occasions and UEFA confirmed yesterday that the French official Gilles Veisseire will take charge of the game.
In the event of the tie being undecided after 90 minutes, extra time will be played. Ultimately, the winners may be determined in a penalty shoot-out and it was scarcely a coincidence that penalty taking figured high on the agenda at yesterday's Irish training session when Dennis Irwin, the team's recognised penalty king, was one of those who missed.
In summary, it's going to be another long, tense evening with Ireland likely to come under early pressure. Undeniably, Turkey are in pole position after their resilient stand in Dublin but if Roy Keane and Kinsella prosper in midfield, there may yet be cause for national celebration in this country.
REPUBIC OF IRELAND (probable): D Kiely (Charlton), S Carr (Tottenham), K Cunningham (Wimbledon), G Breen (Coventry), D Irwin (Man Utd), R Delap (Derby County), Roy Keane (Man Utd), M Kinsella (Charlton), K Kilbane (West Brom), N Quinn (Sunderland), D Connolly (Feyenoord).
TURKEY (probable): R Recher, A Beserier, O Tenizkanoglu, O Alpay, A Ozalan, A Ercan, T Korkut, S Yalcin, H Unsal, H Sukur, A Erden.
Referee: G Veisseire (France).
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