Given’s good to go...well, almost

Shay Given may have sat outIreland’s friendly againstBosnia-Herzegovina but he faced a barrage of questions afterwards that was just as incessant as any onslaught likely to come his way in Poznan or Gdansk next month.

Ireland’s No.1 was asked a dozen questions about his knee: how it was, when he will be back training, if he worried when the injury happened, how it was affecting his kicking. The grilling stopped just short of a request to lift up the leg of his tracksuit.

The problem seems to be no more complicated than a bit of wear and tear in an area of the knee where he underwent a cartilage operation more than a decade ago. Very good news considering the various injury worries attached to the squad right now.

Bottom line? He would have stood sentry between the posts had Saturday’s friendly been the side’s opening game of the European Championships. The problem isn’t even his kicking leg, as was reported in places. He’s good to go.

Well, almost.

“I’ll probably train in the middle of the week,” he said. “I just hurt my knee in training on Monday and had a bit of a reaction, that was all. The scan was fine so there’s just a bit of swelling. There’s no major problems with the ligaments or anything.”

The swelling has come down and the specialist he visited in London last week delivered a diagnosis to copy that of a colleague in Dublin — another box ticked. The plan now is to train in the next 72 hours, then line out against Hungary in Budapest this day week.

Given has arguably been Ireland’s key players this past 10 years but he wasn’t missed on Saturday. Kieren Westwood had little to do against a Bosnian side that all but flatlined on the pitch.

For once, it was Ireland enjoying the lion’s share of possession. The only wonder was that they didn’t score more. The one man who did was Shane Long who probably embedded himself as third-choice striker but no more. The manager said as much later.

“It’s going to be hard to budge Kevin and Robbie,” said Long. “They’ve proved it for a couple of years now at this level, so it’s just a case for me of trying to come in off the bench and make an impact. I was lucky enough to get on the end of a brilliant Aiden McGeady cross.”

Giovanni Trapattoni is blessed with a surfeit of riches up front that his predecessors would have dearly loved. A similar traffic jam is beginning to develop out along the tramlines and McGeady was the pick of them.

Last week, he launched an impassioned defence of his attacking worth to this team and he walked the walk in Ballsbridge with a superb 45 minutes against the visitors who, it must be said again, were there in body only.

It may be that the arrival of James McClean has put people on their toes, although it was clear from speaking to McGeady afterwards that he was desperate for game day after a week of treading water on and off the pitch in Malahide.

“To be honest, we could have probably done without the first week’s training. We’ve been moping around the hotel the last few days and you get a bit bored so it was good just to get a game and we’ve got Italy now.”

Montecatini will provide a change of scenery but McGeady could have been speaking for players, coaches, players and press when expressing his frustration with a phoney war which has, at least, allowed the likes of Given time to heal. Not long now.