Dunne makes his pitch

It was a sight which was almost as welcome and just about as rare as the sun blazing from a deep blue sky over Watford’s training ground yesterday: Richard Dunne back on a football pitch.

Admittedly, the big man wasn’t actually playing a match, instead restricting himself to jogging, passing and heading under the watchful eye of physio Ciarán Murray while, a few short yards away, the defender’s Irish colleagues were engaged in a full-blown training session.

But it might be a whole lot sooner than expected that Dunne is finally kicking a ball in anger again for the first time since he played against Italy at last summer’s European Championship finals, following which he has endured a challenging and at times torrid 12 months of recovery from a groin injury which required no less than three operations.