Determined Kilbane misses training to get his game face on

KEVIN KILBANE, still on course to play against Georgia on Saturday less than a week after having surgery on a fractured cheekbone, had to skip Irish squad training yesterday morning in order to have a protective mask fitted.

His colleagues were suitably impressed by his determination, even if Reading’s Shane Long couldn’t resist the inevitable light-hearted dig.

“He got a nasty one but had an operation on Sunday just to get here,” said the striker. “Now he’s going to have a mask on, so it might improve his looks at least. But, seriously, that’s why he is the player he is today. He’s been a Premiership player all his life and it doesn’t just come easy. He put the work and the elbow grease into it and is getting his rewards now.”

Manchester City’s Richard Dunne, who missed training on Monday with a sore throat, was able to take a full part in a session at Malahide which hinted at Giovanni Trapattoni’s starting line-up in Mainz.

In Kilbane’s temporary absence, QPR’s Damien Delaney filled in at left-back, but assuming the Wigan man suffers no reaction to his cheekbone injury, he is expected to retain his place from the recent friendly against Norway.

That would mean Damien Duff’s absence through injury would effect the only change from the side which drew 1-1 in Oslo with, judging by yesterday’s training line-up, Reading’s Stephen Hunt as his likely replacement.

But while we await Trapattoni’s confirmation of his starting XI, Hunt’s Reading colleague Shane Long sees no reason why Ireland shouldn’t be looking for maximum points in the back to back away games against Georgia and Montenegro.

“They are definitely going to be two hard games but I think we need to get six points and we have a realistic chance,” he said yesterday. “The teams like Italy will be playing these teams thinking they’ll get six points so we need to be thinking the same thing. They are two big games for us but hopefully we can get off to the start we want.

“When the draw was made we looked at these games and said they were ones we had to win. Last year in the Premiership we didn’t beat the teams around us and that’s why we went down. We need to beat these teams to have a chance of qualifying for the World Cup.”

Meanwhile Reading manager Steve Coppell has reacted to comments from Hunt by insisting he had been ‘‘more than fair’’ in rejecting a bid from Everton for the winger.

Hunt feels he “probably deserved a little bit better from the club” after a bid from David Moyes’ side was rejected but Coppell insists that the Royals behaved impeccably.

Coppell said: “It was always going to be a difficult summer, what with relegation and aspirations of certain players to play in the Premier League.

“I think that I and the club have been more than fair to everyone in the squad.”