Given: Steely Dunne will be okay
Given also revealed his Aston Villa and Ireland team-mate has had pins inserted in the bone during major surgery on the injury, which the Irish Player of the Year nominee sustained when falling heavily during a recent game against Manchester City.
“Speaking to the doctor at the club, I think he’ll be alright,” said Given. “He’s had a pretty big operation on his shoulder and they’ve pinned it and they’ll have to come out at some stage. I dislocated my left shoulder and tore a tendon in the other, but his is an actual broken collarbone, so it’s more of bone injury and the pins will be in position until it’s healed together. We all know how strong Dunney is so even if the bone doesn’t heal properly, he’ll still be playing.
“It looked pretty bad when he came down on it, it was a bad fall. He’s got the sling on and not a bother to him. He just gets on with it.
“They’re saying eight weeks but hopefully he’ll be fit towards the end of April and ideally get a few Premier League games before the summer.
“Injury is always something to fear but it’s not something you can think about going into games. If this happened around May, then he would have missed the European Championships and that, as a player, would be very hard to take. Looking back, one of the most famous ones for Ireland was Niall Quinn when he did his knee before the World Cup [in ’94]. That stands out for me as a fan. So it would be a huge loss to lose a player of Dunney’s importance at that time.”
Asked if he thinks about the Euros often, Given replied: “Every day. I’m not just saying that. I do think about it every day. You’ve got your training and you’ve got games for Aston Villa but in the back of your mind, you have this huge thing flashing: the Euros are coming up. And there’s a good few Irish players at Villa now and we talk about it quite a lot and how excited we are about the summer.”
One Irish player at the club clearly not party to those discussions is Stephen Ireland, with Given — somewhat wearily, it must be said — pouring cold water on any notion the midfielder might be contemplating an international comeback.
“I think Stephen has made it clear that he doesn’t want to play. I haven’t even asked him or spoke to him about it. It’s clear from things gone by that he is not interested. It’s pretty clear.”
And if he was interested, you’d expect he’d mention it first to the Irish at Villa? “Probably, but he hasn’t.”
The goalkeeper was much happier to talk about James McClean’s call-up to the squad for next Wednesday’s friendly against the Czech Republic.
“He’s been fantastic since he burst onto the scene. I think maybe more scouts will be coming across to watch players in Ireland because if he can do that, well then there must be other players in the League of Ireland that can maybe do similar things.
“We don’t want to put too much pressure on his shoulders because he does look a really good player. You don’t want to hype him too much because it’s added pressure. Hopefully, he’ll just keep going the way he’s going because he’s doing brilliantly.”
And Given said he has no problem with players who were not part of the qualification effort staking a claim this close to the finals themselves.
“The manager picks the squad not me but from a players’ point of view and personal point of view, I wouldn’t be one to say these guys got us there and they all need to go.
“I believe there is space for one or two. I personally think the nucleus of the squad is already picked. But I think the manager will say, in the back of his head, if McClean, for example, keeps firing goals in every week, it will be hard not to squeeze him in. The other thing is injuries could kick in a month before and anything can happen. I don’t think a door should be closed on any player as we don’t know what the future holds.”
* Shay Given has been appointed Carlsberg’s UEFA Euro 2012 ambassador. For further information see www.facebook.com/carlsbergfootball
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