SOCCER:Steve Staunton moved last night to head off an attempt by his Northern Ireland counterpart, Nigel Worthington, to persuade the highly regarded Manchester United prospect Darron Gibson to switch his international allegiance; the Republic of Ireland manager promoting the teenager from the under-21s to the senior squad for Wednesday's friendly with Denmark.
The midfielder will join the senior players for this morning's training session, which will be taken by Kevin MacDonald.
Staunton is due to join up with his players shortly before they leave for Denmark tomorrow. The manager's father, Tom, passed away on Saturday after a long illness, and his funeral takes place in Dundalk this morning.
Last night the Preston goalkeeper Wayne Henderson said: "It's obviously devastating for Stephen. We all feel for him and will do all we can to rally around him. The good thing is that we are together and we can all help him through it as best we can."
Although Gibson's eligibility to play for the Republic in the first place is at the heart of a separate dispute between the two associations that has yet to be ruled on by Fifa, a senior cap this week would copperfasten the player's decision to pursue his international career south of the Border.
Gibson (19) was born in Derry and played for the North at under-16 but transferred his allegiance to the Republic after being approached by the FAI's under-17 national team coach Seán McCaffrey, who said that the player required no real persuasion.
He has been capped by the Republic at under-17, under-19 and under-21 but the IFA have not given up on him, Worthington confirming to a Belfast Sunday newspaper over the weekend, "I have spoken to him and emphasised how much I want him to be involved with Northern Ireland."
The relevant statute is awkwardly worded and has given rise to a number of difficulties in other countries since coming into force last year.
But a senior cap, even in a friendly game, would appear to end the uncertainty unless the game's international governing body decides to reopen the entire matter by ruling that, as the IFA hope it will, footballers born in Northern Ireland are no longer automatically entitled to play for the Republic as long as they first obtain an Irish passport.
Gibson will fill one of two vacancies created over the weekend in the squad for the trip to Aarhus, as Stephen Elliott and Paul McShane were obliged to withdraw from the game because of injury.
The Bohemians midfielder John Paul Kelly has replaced Gibson in the under-21 squad for tomorrow night's friendly against Germany in Fürth.
Elliott missed Wolves's win yesterday over Sheffield Wednesday with an ankle injury, while the Sunderland defender's absence is the result of a clash of heads during Saturday's 3-0 defeat by Wigan, after which McShane required 10 stitches.
Manchester City's Richard Dunne picked up a similar injury in yesterday's 1-0 win over Manchester United but FAI officials were expecting the defender to arrive at the squad's base in Malahide late last night.
Stephen Ireland was also expected despite having missed yesterday's derby game because of illness.
Already in last night was Daryl Murphy, whose Sunderland team were on the wrong the end of a mauling at Wigan on Saturday after which manager Roy Keane was scathing in his appraisal of the team's performance.
"I suppose it was a bit of a wake-up call really and maybe something that we really needed," said the 24-year-old. "We have Liverpool to come at the weekend and we have to produce in that game, otherwise we will just fall to the wayside."
Asked about Keane's reaction to the defeat, Murphy was cautious, observing only that, "We just have to try to forget about the game yesterday, put it down to an off-day or a poor performance. You can't get away with that in the premiership and maybe the only positive to come out of it all is that we know a bit more now about what it takes to get points in the premiership."
