St Ledger still hopeful of nicking his place

SOCCER: EMMET MALONEsays Seán St Ledger is flying in training, but his lack of match fitness may cost him a place in the line-up on Saturday

SEÁN ST Ledger looks to be training his way back into contention for Saturday’s game against FYR Macedonia in Skopje.

The 26-year-old, who had all but written off the game a few weeks ago after sustaining a knee injury in a tangle with Ciarán Clark in the build-up to the last Macedonia game, insisted yesterday he is ready for competitive action again.

The central defender hasn’t played for either his club or country since picking up that knock in March, but reckons he has done enough over the past few weeks to declare himself fit for the European Championship tie.

However, all that is certain is that he will be on the team plane this afternoon. Whether he makes the pitch on Saturday evening is something Giovanni Trapattoni will make a final call on over the next 24 hours.

If selected, he will likely line out alongside John O’Shea in central defence having previously struck up a decent understanding with Richard Dunne who is suspended for the match. The fact that his regular partner is not available might, in Trapattoni’s mind, soften the blow of having to start without him but St Ledger maintains that he feels up to the challenge.

“Yeah, I’m flying; it feels fine and I have trained for two days which is more than I thought I would do earlier on so I’m happy,” he said before accepting that the coach might have to play safe for the good of the team.

“I can understand whatever decision the manager makes, I will definitely go with it. The bigger picture is to qualify for the Euros and if that means me not playing but Ireland qualifying for the Euros then I would definitely go for it,” admitted St Ledger, who has established himself as a regular in Trapattoni’s side since making his international debut in the 1-1 draw with Nigeria in London a couple of years ago.

His form, he concedes himself, has not always been what he would have hoped for in the last few seasons but his commitment to the cause is beyond question, something that has been underlined by the way he pushed his club Preston to let him travel for Saturday’s game.

“They weren’t going to let me come over in the first place,” he acknowledged. “I went and saw a specialist in Wigan and he said the injury would be 12 weeks.

“It was 10 and a little bit to the (Macedonia) game so the manager has rung the boss here and said: ‘He is not going to be fit’, because he was told that it was going to be 12 weeks.

“But I felt that I was going to be fine,” he continues, “and rang up to say so and we’ve gone from there really. I did more running yesterday afternoon and I will do some more today while I’m also doing some more ball work.

“It’s been a long time out but the flipside of things is that I am obviously fresh and eager to get back into it.”

That’s in stark contrast to the various players who have cried off with what seemed rather less serious injuries. St Ledger is reluctant to be drawn into criticising team-mates, preferring his own presence to a love of playing the game at whatever level he might have the opportunity to play.

When reminded of Trapattoni’s observation last week that the season is like an “11 month holiday”, he laughs, though. “Not when you’re getting relegated it’s not, I can assure you.”

Having gone down, Preston seem keen to off-load players like St Ledger who, the club feels, earn too much for what will be a League One club next year.

“I’m not on that much I can promise you!” he says with a grin. “But yeah, they have said that and playing in these games does put you in the shop window. I’ve not played for Preston for so many weeks and I think this year, overall, I’ve been inconsistent. I’d say I’ve played some good game and I’ve played some bad games. So I just want to get back on the international stage now.”

His club’s Championship record certainly wouldn’t have too many managers knocking on the club’s door.

The second last game that St Ledger was involved in was a 3-0 win at Scunthorpe on March 15th which was the first game since late August in which he’d played and the team had kept a clean sheet.

Still, Trapattoni would like him to play but it promises to be a tough encounter in the heat of the Macedonian capital.

“He is a lot better but I don’t know if I will take a risk with him,” says the Italian.

“Darren O’Dea also played well against Macedonia. And we have to think about what changes we will be able to make because Macedonia will be a very tough game.

“We’ll need players to make changes after one hour maybe. That is important. At this moment we need all the players fit and Seán is better than yesterday which is good.”