Irish vulnerable with Keane out, says Voeller

GERMANY coach Rudi Voeller believes World Cup group rivals Ireland are vulnerable now captain Roy Keane has been sent home.

Asked if Keane’s departure would weaken Ireland in their group E matches, Voeller said yesterday: "Of course it will. He’s their leading player and their playmaker".

Voeller was reluctant to say much more about the furious row between Keane and coach Mick McCarthy, which resulted in the player being dismissed from Ireland’s training camp on Thursday.

"I don’t want to comment on this because I don’t know the background," said Voeller. "All I can say is rules are rules and they have to be respected by everybody."

With Ireland’s only genuine world class player out of the way, Germany seem ideally placed to survive a group also featuring Cameroon and Saudi Arabia.

"Cameroon are dangerous opponents," warned Voeller, who has lost a handful of valued players through injuries, notably defence marshal Jens Nowotny and creative midfielder Sebastian Deisler.

"With Saudi Arabia we don’t know precisely what to expect but we are certainly not taking them lightly," he added.

Voeller has named the knock out stage as the minimum aim for Germany, who open their campaign against Saudi Arabia on June 1 in Sapporo before playing Ireland four days later in Ibaraki and Cameroon on June 11 in Shizuoka.

Midfielder Michael Ballack should be fit to play Germany’s first World Cup game against Saudi Arabia on June 1, Voeller said.

"I’m totally optimistic and I have no doubt that he will be able to play," Voeller said of the Bayer Leverkusen player, who is nursing a bruised foot.

Meanwhile Man Utd great Paddy Crerand feels Mick McCarthy "has cut off his nose to spite his face" by sending Roy Keane home.

Republic of Ireland manager McCarthy ordered the Man Utd midfielder to leave his World Cup party yesterday after a furious row over training and facilities.

Keane openly criticised various aspects of Ireland’s World Cup build up before clear the air talks with McCarthy in Saipan boiled over into a "slanging match".

Crerand admits he can understand why the player has been booted out of the squad, but feels there could have been another solution to the problem.

"I think Mick’s cut off his nose to spite his face," he said. "Roy is the equivalent of Steven Gerrard and David Beckham rolled into one for Ireland. I thought Ireland had a decent chance of progressing because they were in one of the less difficult groups, but now without Roy it is going to be much harder."