IRELAND NEWS:GOALKEEPERS Wayne Henderson and Colin Doyle will be among the Irish players to reconvene in London this morning, 48 hours before they are due to depart for Sofia where they take on Bulgaria in their important World Cup qualifying game on Saturday evening.
The pair were officially added to the squad yesterday due the departure of Dean Kiely from the group last week and the unavailability this weekend of Keiren Westwood.
The pair, who have seven caps between them, will provide back-up to Shay Given who had been struggling with a hip injury last week prior to being cleared to play the first half of Friday’s game against Nigeria.
In the wake of a trouble-free draw against Nigeria on Friday night, Giovanni Trapattoni is expected to have a virtually full squad available to him for training over the next couple of days with Given having suffered no significant ill effects after his 45 minutes at Craven Cottage.
Caleb Folan is likely to join the group after being allowed to rest a minor knee problem at home last week.
Despite a decent run-out against the Africans, Coventry City’s Leon Best is likely to make way for Hull City striker Folan when the team is announced towards the end of the week while the Italian continues to mull over the possibility of making changes in defence where Sean St Ledger could start with Richard Dunne in the centre with John O’Shea moving to right back.
Dunne remains in the dark as to who it is who will partner him at the Vasil Levski stadium but, he acknowledges, the newcomer certainly did well enough on Friday to leave the manager with a decision to make.
“He was excellent,” the Manchester City defender said. “He talked all the way through the game, he felt really comfortable to play along side. He looked like he’d been there for ages, to be honest.
“I think Friday will have helped all of the lads who came in for the first time, though, they’ll learn from the experience.
“You know yourself,” he continued, “the manager has said that it might be a completely different team next week. But we always know that we’ve got players who have played games and have the experience.”
The Manchester City defender says the squad is in confident mood after the game against Nigeria which was meant to keep the players ticking over ahead of Saturday’s qualifier.
“Yes, it was a good week generally, particularly for the Championship lads who haven’t played for a while.
“Now, we’ve got to look forward and try to get a win that would go a long way towards helping us qualify.”
With Trapattoni’s plans to draft in replacements for Keiren Westwood and Dean Kiely hampered by the fact several players are on holidays there may be an eagerness amongst some squad members to get the trip out of the way so as to finally wrap up an arduous long season.
However, Dunne denies that anyone views such a big match as an inconvenience.
“It’s not as if it’s a pain that the season is dragging on. This is another game, the final one of the season and we want to go out on a high. We feel, if we win, that it gives us a great chance of qualifying.”
Stanimir Stoilov’s Bulgarian squad, meanwhile, will also intensify their preparations for Saturday’s game after the locally-based squad members completed their domestic season at the weekend when Levski Sofia wrapped up their 26th title ahead of rivals CSKA with a 1-1 draw against Minior Pernik.
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