Henderson and Doyle keeping in the frame

IT WAS a beautiful sunny day at Arsenal’s training ground in St Albans yesterday but the sight of Shay Given sitting out training sent a shiver down the spine.

Giovanni Trapattoni was quick to offer reassurance, however. Although Ireland’s Number One had been nursing a hip injury going into last Friday’s friendly game against Nigeria, the manager was able to confirm that the Donegal man is good to go for Saturday’s World Cup clash in Bulgaria.

The only reason Given wasn’t between the sticks yesterday was because the manager wanted to look at Wayne Henderson and Colin Doyle, the two men called up at the last moment in the fallout from ‘Keepergate’, the bizarre saga which saw first Dean Kiely and then Kieren Westwood confirmed as non-runners for Sofia.

For Wayne Henderson, who should by now be holidaying in Turkey with his girlfriend Elizabeth, there were no second thoughts about answering his country’s call.

“Everyone knows what this means to me,” he says, “especially having been out for so long and with a new manager as well. It was a massive opportunity for me to come back and hopefully play a part in some way by backing up Shay and getting the right result.”

It’s nearly two years since Henderson won the last of his four caps. That was in one of the few highlights of the Steve Staunton era, the 4-0 drubbing of Denmark in Aarhus. But Henderson was also party to one of the lowest points, when he was a participant in the slow-motion defensive car crash which saw Ireland concede a shock goal in the Euro qualifier in San Marino.

But that was as nothing to the personal catastrophe which befell him subsequently, when complications arising from a slipped disc required two operations and meant a prolonged absence from the action for the Preston North End ‘keeper. Only this season has he returned to the fray, going out on loan to Grimsby Town to gain some badly needed match practice.

What was the lowest point in his struggle to get back?

“Missing the deadlines that you keep setting,” he says. “At the beginning it was ‘oh, it will be only two weeks’. Then it was three weeks and then a few months. Every deadline that was set seemed to be missed. It is demoralising every time you miss another one. Thank God I found a fantastic physio down in London as well as the medical staff at Preston. They got me back playing again.”

But there were times, he admits, when he feared he might never play again.

“Totally. Every day you wake up and the pain is still there and you’re not sure what’s going to happen but I was blessed to have fantastic family beside me. My fiancée [Elizabeth], Jesus, she took some stick over the last 18 months but she has stood by me all the way and it’s people like that who get you through.

“But it’s been devastating not being a part of (the Trapattoni era) because I was really staking a claim to be Shay Given’s understudy at the time when I did break down. Now that I’ve got back in I’m just desperate to stake my claim for that Number Two spot.”

And his thoughts on the Number One?

“Personally, I think (Shay) is the best goalkeeper to have ever played for the country. He has given me an awful lot of experience, just training with him, and that was another reason I wanted to come back. I’ve worked extremely hard in the last 18 months to give myself a chance of playing football again, never mind coming back into an Ireland squad. To work with Shay on a day-to-day basis and (goalkeeping coach) Kells (Alan Kelly) as well is a great opportunity to keep learning.”

Meanwhile, Cork-born Colin Doyle was on holiday in his native city when he got the emergency call up. The news came as a boost after a season at Birmingham City in which his on-field contribution to their promotion campaign was severely restricted. Doyle accepts he may have to look elsewhere for first team football.

“It’s been frustrating as I wanted to play every game,” says Doyle. “But Maik Traylor was ahead of me and he’s had a great season. But it is frustrating. I’m 24 in a couple of weeks so I want to start playing now. I will have to see what happens this season if Alex McLeish brings a keeper in.

“I will try and get away, even if it is on loan. If it is a loan deal then it won’t be a one or two or three-month loan but for a full season. I would want a full season under my belt. I think you are better off back in the Championship and trying to play week-in, week out. You get better experience than sitting on the bench in a Premiership game that you could watch on the telly. I just want to get some football under my belt.”