McShane to miss World Cup qualifiers

THE Republic of Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa suffered a blow yesterday after it was confirmed Paul McShane will be out for the next three months through injury.

The Sunderland defender picked up a knock to his knee in the Black Cats pre-season friendly victory over Darlington and scans have revealed he will require an operation to cure his knee injury, surgery that could rule him out until late October.

It means that unless Ireland are involved in a play-off, McShane’s participation in this World Cup campaign is at an end, as Ireland play Cyprus on September 5 and Italy on October 10 before finishing their campaign against Montenegro four days later.

However, should Ireland be involved in a play-off to reach South Africa, McShane could be available as the play-offs are scheduled to take place on November 10 and 14.

The news will come as a blow to Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni as, while McShane has struggled on the club scene, he has been a relative regular on the international scene, playing in four of the Republic’s seven qualifiers so far.

The news is also a blow to new Black Cats manager Steve Bruce, who admitted McShane’s injury was a blow. “This news is exactly what we didn’t want and now we will be without Paul for a while," he said.