Fit-again Long gets Ireland recall as Trap trims squad

Giovanni Trapattoni has confirmed his 23-man squad for next week’s friendly against Greece and, as expected, Shane Long has been added to the panel.

With the manager having originally named a provisional squad of 26, four players have dropped to the standby list — Andy Keogh (Millwall), Conor Clifford (Chelsea), Shane Duffy (Everton) and Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace).

Omitted from the provisional squad, Long was a doubt with a hamstring problem, compounded by a knock to the back of the knee, before proving his fitness with 71 minutes of action for West Brom in their 2-0 Premier League victory over Southampton on Monday night.

Now, barring any setback in Saturday’s game against Wigan, the Tipperary striker will travel to Dublin to join the rest of the Irish squad for their first training session at Malahide on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Richard Dunne has conceded that he will face a fight to get back into the side at Aston Villa after it was confirmed that the defender is finally well on the road to recovery after being sidelined since the European Championships in June with a groin problem which required two operations.

Now back in full training and eyeing a top-flight return next month, Dunne knows he will have a job on his hands to dislodge fellow Irish international Ciaran Clark and Dutchman Ron Vlaar at Villa Park.

Said the Dubliner: “I do think that Ciaran has been brilliant and Ron has come and settled in great. I don’t think there has been a problem in the team defensively.’’

Dunne returned to full training last week and is set for a reserve team appearance to test his fitness. It was initially thought the experienced centre-back would be out until the Christmas period having suffered a number of setbacks with his rehabilitation.

But Dunne, 33, has made better progress in the past fortnight and was given the all-clear by club’s medical staff to resume work with the rest of the Villa squad. However, manager Paul Lambert is hesitant about putting a date on his full return.

“We’ll see how he is,” he said. “Will he be back soon? I’m not sure really, because he’s got to get up to speed with training and get games under his belt. He’s still a wee bit away.”

Elsewhere, Manchester United winger Robbie Brady has expressed his joy after joining Hull for a second loan spell. The Republic of Ireland international has joined Steve Bruce’s squad on an emergency loan deal and, having spent the 2011/12 season on loan with the Tigers, he can’t wait to get started again.

“It’s brilliant to be back and I really enjoyed myself here last season,” said Brady. “I played a lot of football here, which is what I needed, and I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things.

“I think Manchester United going out of the League Cup was probably the catalyst for coming back here.

“The time was right to come out on loan and I’m just looking forward to playing and helping Hull along the right way.”