Irish boss ponders change in selection

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI often preaches about the virtues of having a settled team but, as the Irish squad flies out from Frankfurt to Podgorica today, the manager hasn’t ruled out the possibility of changes in the team to play Montenegro on Wednesday.

At issue, first and foremost, are minor injuries to Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt and Shay Given, all of whom sat out yesterday’s training session near the squad’s German base in Wiesbaden.

Doyle and Hunt were both nursing calf problems, while Given was said to be suffering from the ubiquitous ‘knock’, after the 2-1 win against Georgia in Mainz. In the normal course of events, it would seem that all three could play again this week but, saying that he needs to be certain that they can put in a full 90 minutes so soon after another competitive outing, Trapattoni will not name his starting 11 until he receives convincing updates on their fitness. He also hinted that the nature of the opposition might mean one change in his selection.