McGrath: Dunne is main man

Paul McGrath admits he is very concerned about Richard Dunne being fit enough to play for Ireland at the European Championship finals, and says that he is “desperate for him to be okay”.

Famously, McGrath himself performed heroics at USA 94 despite carrying a restrictive injury, with the result that he prefers to recall his celebrated display against Italy as “one of the jammiest games I’ve ever had”.

The most optimistic prognosis for Dunne’s recovery from a fractured collarbone would seem to be that he might get in a game or two with Aston Villa before the season ends but Irish football legend McGrath would still be worried that the inspirational centre-half might struggle to be at his best at the Euros.

“I think most people in Ireland would attribute us being at the finals to Richard,” says the former Ireland international. “Some of the games he played, I think he was fantastic. He is one of the players we need to be at their best at the competition. And even if he gets games in beforehand, I’d be dicey about him being up to scratch so I’d be desperate for him to be okay.”

But McGrath reckons it will be touch and go for the Aston Villa man.

“Yeah, we’re at the stage of the season where he’d need to be getting games or at least putting in the fitness regime to make it to the Euros. The thing is [Giovanni] Trapattoni needs him so he might give him extra time before making that final analysis. But even an 80% fit Richard Dunne, I’d bring.”

McGrath knows better than most what it’s like to face into a big tournament at less than maximum fitness, a freak viral problem having rendered one of his arms almost immobile going into the World Cup finals in the United States 18 years ago.

He recalls: “I was swimming with [physio] Mick Byrne most days to get the strength back into the arm, and there was no way that was happening, so Jack [Charlton] said it was getting down to picking someone else to go to the World Cup instead of myself. But Mick had me on a training regime, I changed nothing, I did what I was told, and luckily I got the shout.”

McGrath vividly remembers the night he was suddenly afflicted by the problem.

“It happened the night before we [Aston Villa] played Manchester United in the League Cup. At 3am in the morning I went down to Jim Walker and then I was having needles put in before the game. But it was just as painful as ever. I went for a few checks with the best doctors around, and they just told me that the arm was just hanging there, and I wasn’t going to be able to use it for quite some time.

“Basically, my shoulder just disappeared on me, it was a viral thing eating the inside of it. Thank God it was fed eventually because it stopped, or maybe it was the regime I was put through. Either way, I just about got back for the World Cup, otherwise someone else would have played.”

But McGrath admits that he felt very restricted by the problem in the opening game against Italy .

“It did hamper me because, early on in the game I was chasing [Giuseppe] Signori and it took me three or four strides to get into a position that, no disrespect, I think I could have had him. That sounds boastful but it’s not. I just couldn’t get in my running stride, and I couldn’t jump properly to head balls. So it was bad for me but it worked out because we won.”

The remarkable feature of McGrath’s experience of that famous game in Giants Stadium, of course, is that it is so far removed from the way his performance was perceived by the watching world, the player’s magnificent defensive display being widely regarded as the greatest of his international career and, at least as significant in that 1-0 win as Ray Houghton’s celebrated goal. But that’s not how McGrath sees it at all.

“No, not at all. I would think that’s one of the jammiest games I’ve ever had — seriously. I was lucky in so many ways. The day just fell my way, that’s as true as God.”

And, while he worries about Dunne’s recovery ahead of the finals in Poland, McGrath still reckons the big defender is made of strong enough stuff to do it in the summer for Ireland even if he is less than 100 per cent fit.

“I think he can. There are some players who can’t, but when I saw the game against Russia in Moscow, it was frightening, it was almost like he did it on his own. If you are playing around a lad like that it just gives you encouragement. He would be my main man anyway. Me being a centre half, I would say that.”