Republic of Ireland midfielder Aiden McGeady will gamble on his fitness to make Celtic's Champions League game against Benfica next Tuesday. The 20-year-old playmaker picked up an ankle injury during training this week.

But initial fears McGeady could have broken a bone were unfounded when an MRI scan revealed only a strain. The midfielder, who picked up the Bank of Scotland Young Player of the Month award for September, will miss the trip to Dundee United.

But McGeady, who has become a mainstay of the first team this season, is desperate to get back into the starting 11 as soon as possible and has targeted the visit of the Portuguese side.

He said: "The injury not as bad as I first thought. I thought I had broken it when I first did it, but the results showed I hadn't. I am walking on it fine and, hopefully, I will be back playing soon.

"It is very frustrating but it could have been worse, I could have been out for eight to 10 weeks or even longer. I have not done any running, I have just been getting treatment on it.

"Hopefully - and this is rushing it - I think I could maybe be back for Tuesday. There can be a chance of making the injury worse by rushing back but I want to play, that's the thing. I am willing to take that chance. If I am feeling okay, I should get try and get back playing."

McGeady believes he will forever be explaining his decision to turn his back on Scotland, the country of his birth, to play for Ireland.

He said: "Obviously, I have been keeping my eye on the Scotland results. When we lost 5-2 to Cyprus last week, I came out and checked the results on my phone and noticed Scotland had won 1-0 against France.

"Obviously, I was going to get a bit of stick. I'm going to get people saying 'Why did you chose Ireland?' every time Ireland do badly and Scotland start doing well,

"But, hopefully, Ireland have turned the corner. It was a great draw against the Czech Republic in midweek considering the options Steve Staunton had.

"There were a lot of players out injured and it was a severely weakened team with many making their competitive debuts so a draw was fantastic. Some of the criticism of the manager after the Cyprus defeat was justified because it was such a bad result.

"However, a lot of it was pretty unfair because everyone knows we are going through a transitional period."