Relief as Duff available for Bulgaria clash

DAMIEN DUFF last night put Ireland’s concerns at rest when he reported to play in Wednesday’s challenge game against Bulgaria at Lansdowne Road.

Alarm bells ran in the Irish camp when Duff was not named in the Chelsea squad for their opening Premiership game of the season against Manchester United.

His absence was all the more puzzling because of the absence of his main opponent for the left wing slot in the Stamford Bridge side - Dutchman Arjen Robben, who was signed this summer. Robben is on Olympic Games duty with the Netherlands.

Chelsea’s new coach, Jose Mourinho, named Russian midfielder Alexei Smertin in Duff’s place and Ireland’s manager, Brian Kerr, feared the worst in the knowledge that Duff has been working to recover from the serious shoulder injury he suffered last season.

But Chelsea’s Mourinho yesterday gave Duff his blessing to travel to Dublin with the comment: “Damien is not ready yet to play in the Premiership after his shoulder injury. But he can play for Ireland as I know it’s so important to him.”

Duff has played in some of Chelsea’s pre-season games and the medical experts have given him a green light to resume full action. But after recovering from surgery on his dislocated shoulder, Duff clearly has some more work to do.

Said Mourinho after Chelsea’s match against United: “maybe the match on Wednesday can help Damien overcome the mental block about playing in a competitive fixture.”

It is highly unlikely that Duff will play the 90 minutes against Bulgaria but Kerr will be delighted that he will be available to play in some of the match.

It will be a last chance for Kerr to work on the team formation before they kick off their World Cup qualifying tournament next month in Dublin against Cyprus.

The news of two other of Ireland’s first-choice players was not so good, however, for Matt Holland (Charlton Athletic) and Andy O’Brien (Newcastle United) were both forced to withdraw from the Irish squad.

Holland suffered a ligament injury early as Charlton suffered a 4-1 defeat against Bolton Wanderers. He was forced to withdraw after 12 minutes and took no further part in the match.

Andy O’Brien was one of the several Newcastle United players affected by an eye infection. Newcastle have taken huge steps to try and eliminate this highly contagious infection, even to the extent of instructing their players to avoid hand-shakes with their Middlesbrough opponents.

O’Brien was not able to take any part in the game but more encouraging for Kerr was the fact that Shay Given and Newcastle’s recent signing from Spurs, Stephen Carr, played a full part in the game.

Kerr last night confirmed that he did not intend to call up any replacements for Holland and O’Brien and will have every other player in the squad available for today’s training session in Portmarnock.