Boost for Ireland as O’Shea set to join squad for qualifiers
Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson told O'Shea to cut back on his work rate in the second half and concentrate on his defensive work because of a tight hamstring.
However Ireland's management team were optimistic last night that O'Shea's problem was not serious enough to threaten his involvement in Ireland's European Championship games against Georgia and Albania.
The Irish squad congregate in Dublin tonight to begin their preparations for the game against Georgia on Saturday and regular work with the physiotherapists this week should see O'Shea in top form by the weekend.
Said coach Noel O'Reilly: "He will be in Dublin along with the rest. We have not heard anything to the contrary.
O'Shea and Stephen Carr (Spurs) are two welcome additions to the squad that was on duty at the World Cup and while Carr will operate at right-back, the Waterford man could start in the middle or on the left.
The loss of Birmingham's Clinton Morrison was a blow to the Irish. He was substituted in Birmingham's game against West Brom because of a dislocated shoulder.
His withdrawal removes an important option for manager Brian Kerr, who must have been impressed with Morrison's form against Scotland in the friendly at Hampden Park.
Kerr refused yesterday to rule him out of the picture, however. Morrison informed him he had suffered the injury in the past and recovered quickly once it was put back into place.
Already two other players have been forced to withdraw from the squad because of injuries Gary Kelly (Leeds United) and Jason McAteer (Sunderland), both with hamstring injuries.
Steve Finnan (Fulham) is doubtful because he was forced to miss their match against Manchester United with a rib injury. He is expected to travel to Dublin and faces treatment before the Irish travel to Georgia on Thursday.
Across Europe, domestic leagues are entering their final phases. In Italy, AC Milan threw themselves back into the title race after defeating league leaders Juventus 2-1 at a sold-out San Siro.
Milan went ahead after four minutes when Andriy Shevchenko latched on to a pass from Rui Costa and although his shot was blocked by keeper Luigi Buffon, he converted the rebound.
Six minutes later Juventus were level when Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved fired in a free kick from wide on the left and it beat Milan keeper Dida after appearing to take a deflection.
Inzaghi restored Milan's advantage in the 25th minute.
Mateja Kezman scored both goals to give Dutch league leaders PSV Eindhoven an all-important 2-0 win over nearest challengers Ajax yesterday.
The victory may have esettled this season's title chase as PSV are now 10 points clear of the defending champions with only nine games left.
Bayern Munich moved to the brink of an 18th Bundesliga title with a 1-0 home win over Hansa Rostock, going 15 points clear of Dortmund.
With just eight games to play the title race is essentially over.
While in Spain, Real Madrid beat Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 with goals from Zidane and Ronaldo while Barcelona hammered Racing Santander 6-1.
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