Tardelli brushes off injuries

Marco Tardelli has insisted all 23 of the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 squad will be fit for the friendly against Hungary on June 4 and, more importantly of course, the tournament itself.

The assistant manager made his confident prediction yesterday despite yet another media briefing dominated not by talk of the upcoming games against Croatia, Spain and Italy but a casualty ward which, at this rate, will soon be stuck for space.

Just as worrying as the quantity of niggles and knocks is the fact they are concentrated on the defensive half of the teamsheet and it now looks likely that Ireland will face Bosnia-Herzegovina in Saturday’s friendly without four of their first-choice back five.

It was against that backdrop which Paul McShane arrived in Portmarnock yesterday evening as cover. McShane has his critics but he can, in theory, offer an option at centre-back as well as full-back, unlike Seamus Coleman, who continues to have his backers, and the Wicklow man may yet travel with the team to their camp in Montecatini next week.

Of greater concern was the subsequent news, released by the FAI less than an hour later, informing the media that Shay Given’s knee injury, which has prevented him training for most of the week, will require a trip to London to see a specialist today.

Though described as “purely precautionary” and a matter which in no way jeopardises the goalkeeper’s participation in Poland next month, it is hardly the type of information supporters want to hear at this stage.

Given is certainly out of the Bosnia game and he is likely to be joined in the stands by three of Ireland’s first-choice back four: John O’Shea is “probably” unavailable, according to Tardelli, while Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger have already been crossed off the list.

Dunne’s abdominal injury was flagged on Tuesday while O’Shea’s ankle has been a factor for a number of weeks but St Ledger’s addition to the list is more recent after the Leicester City defender woke yesterday morning with a groin problem.

The good news? Robbie Keane is at least good to go this weekend after his transatlantic flight and minor hamstring problem while the numbers at training yesterday morning were up more than 50% from the 11 who ran out 24 hours earlier.

It is nonetheless a far from perfect state of affairs, even if Tardelli remarked it was better now than in a fortnight’s time. Maybe so, but any injury deemed significant enough to merit a flight to London — as is the case with Given — is not to be easily discounted while the tear in Dunne’s lower abdominal wall is hardly a run of the mill sprained ankle-type of injury.

For now, the result is a number of opportunities for players who may not have expected them at this juncture. Among them will be goalkeeper Kieren Westwood, who made such a vital contribution when standing in for Given against Macedonia last year.

Trapattoni is looking at defensive promotions for Darren O’Dea, McShane and Stephen Kelly, with Stephen Ward the only defender from the original squad currently fit.

It is an unusual situation for McShane, who comes in on the back of half-a-season spent out on loan at Crystal Palace from Hull City. On Saturday, he may line up alongside O’Dea, whose own temporary digs were to be found at Elland Road.

O’Dea has since been deemed surplus to requirements at Leeds and is now waiting to see whether Celtic exercise the final year on his contract in order to receive a fee or allow him find a new club as a free agent.

The Scottish champions have until May 31 to make a decision about a player they concede is no longer part of their plans and, although O’Dea can understand the club’s desire to make some money on a likely transfer, he is hoping they sever the link.

He said: “Nothing is happening as I’ve to wait for Peter Lawwell to make up his mind. He’s told me I will get a letter in the post — he probably doesn’t own a cell phone or something, he could ring us — but I’ll have someone waiting by my letterbox every day.”