With the participation of Steven Reid still in doubt Giovanni Trapattoni has opted to call up QPR’s Martin Rowlands ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Montenegro.
Reid has been struggling with an Achilles injury of late and sat out Blackburn Rovers’ 6-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal yesterday. Sam Allardyce is, therefore, unlikely to be keen on a player who is only back from a year out injured being risked on international duty.
Like Reid, however, Rowlands is unlikely to add to his three caps against either the world champions on Saturday or Montenegro the following Wednesday.
By calling up the midfielder Trapattoni has once again refused the opportunity to call on Sunderland’s Andy Reid who assisted yet another Black Cats goal at the weekend, this time at Old Trafford.
Rowlands will join up with the squad tomorrow for the first training session of the week at Malahide's Gannon Park.
Sheffield United’s Keith Treacy has been added to the Ireland Under-21 squad to face Georgia and Switzerland.
Treacy was set to be included in the original squad when he suffered an injury while playing for Sheffield United.
It was initially feared that the injury would keep Treacy out of action for several months.
However, now that it has been confirmed that the injury is not as serious as first thought, the Dublin-born player has been included in the squad.
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