Shane Duffy the good news story amid Ireland health warnings

Injury time – that’s where Irish football finds itself right now.

With just over two months to go to the European Championship Finals, and as far as the physical well-being of his players is concerned, Martin O’Neill finds himself in essentially the same boat as Davy Keogh and all the other Irish supporters who can do little more than finger the beads in the hope that no further serious problems befall the boys in green between now and then.

All were briefly shocked into having to contemplate something like a worse case scenario when waking up to the news on Thursday morning that Jon Walters could be in a race against time to be fit for France — then just as suddenly given fresh reason to believe by the man himself, as he delivered an upbeat report on his speedy recovery prospects from a knee operation.