Quinn's return imminent

AFTER more than five months of enforced rest Irish striker Niall Quinn is hoping to be back in action by the end of this month. Advice from his doctor suggests that he is now almost ready to resume playing competitively again having recovered well from an operation in November to repair a snapped cruciate ligament.

Quinn has been back in training for some time now and feels that while his knee would stand up to the rigours of first team football he would not yet have the stamina for that sort of test. He is now concentrating on improving his fitness and hopes to be in contention for a return to Sunderland's Premiership side by early April.

"They've said that I can play in the reserves this month and that's important in itself. I'm selfish though. If I played one reserve game and it went well then I'd be looking to the first team, I don't want to play six or seven reserve matches between now and the end of the season."

If the 30 year old managed to break back into Peter Reid's side early next month he could quickly find himself back in the reckoning for an international call up. While a return for the trip to FYR Macedonia (April 2nd) seems out of the question Mick McCarthy may well be tempted into broadening his options by including Quinn in his travelling party for Romania on April 30th.

"I've kept Mick involved all along and he has said that, as far as he is concerned, if he sees me play in a couple of matches then I will come back into contention for the Irish team.

"I don't really want to think that far ahead, though, because I have a long way to go before that. A lot depends on the attitude of the club, too. They've been very good to me over the past few months and I'll be guided in everything by them," he said.

Quinn's injury, originally sustained in the win over Coventry back in September but then discovered nearly two months later to be worse than had been originally thought, has been quite a blow to Peter Reid's season.

The former Arsenal and Manchester City striker had scored three goals in seven appearances for his new club after a £1.3 million move before suffering a repeat of the injury that kept him out of the 1994 World Cup in America.