Kilbane in fitness race for final Euro qualifiers

KEVIN KILBANE admits he’s in a race against time to be fit for selection for Ireland’s final two group games of the European Championship qualifying campaign.

The veteran’s remarkable run of 66 consecutive competitive caps came to an abrupt end when a back problem ruled him out of the games against Slovakia and Russia.

That injury has settled down a bit since but now Kilbane is struggling with a hamstring problem.

“I still don’t really know how I got the back problem,” he said. “It seized up and it’s still not the best. It happened in training on the Tuesday, the first day we got in before the Slovakia match. Whether it’s old age catching up on me, I don’t know. But I’m getting it in my hamstring now as well. My back has actually settled down now, it’s more in my hamstring now. I’ll just have to see how it goes.”

Understandably then, the Derby County man can’t be confident of being right for the games against Andorra and Armenia

“I genuinely don’t know. I won’t be involved this weekend for Derby (against Millwall). But we’ve a game on Tuesday against Barnsley. Hopefully I’ll be involved in that or against Leicester on Saturday week. Of course it’s a concern, I’ve had virtually no injury problems throughout my career. And when you get hamstring trouble, you can’t really gauge how long it’s going to be. But I’m genuinely hopeful I’ll be okay. Two weeks is enough time.”

Of course, first Kilbane has to find out if he’s included in the squad, which Giovanni Trapattoni will name today. Whatever happens, the 34-year-old insists he has no plans to retire from the international arena and will continue to make himself available for selection.

“In my head I’m thinking I’ve got to be fit for either Tuesday or Saturday and give myself a fighting chance,” he says of the most immediate deadline. “The club will be working with me over the next week to ten days to try to get me right. I’ve been very fortunate in my career with injuries. But sometimes when you get a setback you can fear the worst and think too hard about it. I’m just hoping it settles down quickly after a little bit of rest.”

* Kevin Kilbane was speaking at the launch in Dublin yesterday by Italian sportswear company Macron of their first Irish store. To a list of international clients like Napoli , Monaco , Leeds United and West Ham, Macron have now added Shelbourne and Limerick FC. For further information see www.macronkits.ie