Heimir Hallgrímsson sought to bring Irish players into camp last month to bridge the 130 days between beating Hungary on November 16th and contesting the World Cup playoff against the Czech Republic on March 26th.
“I wish we could have had a domestic camp in January,” said Hallgrímsson following the Nations League draw in Brussels on Thursday night. “It was one of my wishes, but it didn’t materialise.”
That means no collective sessions before Ireland’s biggest international fixture since Euro 2016 before the squad assembles in March.
This has not stopped Hallgrímsson from visiting individual players at English clubs. He returns home to Iceland this weekend having spent some time at Ipswich Town, where Dara O’Shea is club captain, before the Uefa gathering in the Belgian capital.
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On top of the work being done by his assistant coaches John O’Shea, Gudmundur Hreidarsson and Paddy McCarthy, who also has a day job at Crystal Palace, Hallgrímsson turned to the FAI’s latest pro-licence students, which include Shelbourne manager Joey O’Brien and former Ireland international Noel Hunt, to identify weaknesses in the Czechs and his own team.
“We’ve been doing work on us, we’ve been doing analysis on us, we’ve been doing analysis on the opponent and the possible next one.”
If Ireland win in Prague, they will welcome either Denmark or North Macedonia to the Aviva Stadium on March 31st for a playoff decider to secure a place at the World Cup.
“Obviously, ending up like we did the last camp, you want to play tomorrow. In December I was thinking, should I be watching players? How they play in December, will that help us in March?”
Concerns remain around the availability of Evan Ferguson (ankle), Séamus Coleman (hamstring) and Sammie Szmdocis’s largely unexplained departure from Ipswich Town in the January transfer window.
Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna made it clear that Szmodics was loaned to Championship rivals Derby County due to a “cultural” issue in a changing room that includes three more Irish players in O’Shea, Jack Taylor and Kasey McAteer, rather than for football reasons.
“I’m not going to go into that because I don’t have the deep knowledge on it,” said Hallgrímsson. “I was at Ipswich’s training three days ago. I talked to them, talked to our players and the coaches, and everything seemed to be jolly in the squad.”
Hallgrímsson has not spoken to Szmodics since his return from injury late last year.
The Ireland manager was recently on the phone to Ferguson after Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini revealed that the 21-year-old has sustained four ankle injuries since arriving on loan from Brighton.
“I spoke to Evan. He thinks he’s going to be good for Sunday [against Napoli]. He’s not far off, he says. But it’s taking longer than he thought.”
Hallgrímsson agreed with Gasperini labelling Ferguson as injury prone.
“He has been a little bit. It’s not unfair to say. But obviously [Gasperini] wants him to be fit and play in every game. He brought in a striker. That’s one of the reasons probably because his opinion is that he gets injured a lot. And the other striker [Artem Dovbyk] has been injured a lot. So they’re struggling up there.
“Hopefully Evan can come back fit and play and start scoring again for them. He really sounds like he is in a good place. And not far from being fully fit. Let’s hope he’ll stay fit until we play in March.”
Coleman, meanwhile, has clocked 10 minutes of football for Everton since the Hungary game. Having recently returned to the bench, behind the Toffees’ starting right back Jake O’Brien, Coleman was last week seated in the stand last week alongside his manager David Moyes as Nathan Patterson provided cover at fullback.
The 37-year-old started the four qualifiers in October and November without building up his match fitness at Everton, so Hallgrímsson knows Coleman could be dropped into the Ireland side to play the Czech Republic.
“He has shown that. We were surprised how well he did in [November]. We played almost two 90-minute games against strong opponents with only two recovery days in between.
“He did so well for us in the last camps, so obviously we’re hoping he’ll get the minutes, that would be ideal for us for him to play.
“Seeing him up on the stands with Moyesy just shows how much they respect him at Everton,” Hallgrímsson continued. “So, if he’s not in the squad, he’s helping the coach manage the game. It should be a positive. He’s helping the team like he can help us. But obviously we always want our players coming to the camp with a good run of matches behind them.”
Most of Hallgrímsson’s waking thoughts are about the holding midfielder he will choose to replace Josh Cullen. The veteran Burnley captain was ruled out of the Prague playoff after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in December.
“I have thought about this a lot. At the moment, we don’t have many options. Those players who are playing in this position, the likes of Conor Coventry, Jayson Molumby, Jason Knight aren’t playing regularly for their clubs. Alan Browne is playing, and has really impressed us [at Middlesbrough]. But he’s playing right back.
“And then Bosun Lawal, he’s playing right back, left back, everywhere but midfield.”
On Friday, Stoke City ruled Lawal out of action for six weeks with a hamstring tear.
“So have I thought about [midfield]? Yes. We’re trying to find the best solution for us in March.”
