The return of the Saint

HE stepped in, he stepped out and now he’s stepped in again —even Michael Flatley would have been hard-pushed keeping up with Sean St Ledger’s take on Lanigan’s Ball this past couple of weeks.

As far back as early May, the Preston man was listed only as a provisional member of the current squad, “fitness permitting”. And at that point, it looked an outside bet that he would make it to Dublin, never mind Skopje, as he continued to nurse a knee injury sustained in an accidental collision with Aston Villa’s Ciaran Clark at Ireland’s Malahide training base in the run-up to the home victory over Macedonia back in March.

A full 10 weeks later, St Ledger has yet to kick a ball competitively but, at the end of a full training session in Gannon Park yesterday — during which he was paired with John O’Shea at centre-half — he declared himself fit for the fray for the game against Macedonia on Saturday. His only problem now is that his manager may not share that view.