Gibson a fresh O’Neill injury worry with jarred knee
Just minutes before the Ireland manager faced the media in Dublin yesterday to announce his latest squad, he learned that the FAI had received a text from the club’s physio to say the midfielder had jarred a knee in training and, while the initial assessment was that the problem was not too serious, it was clear it would not be possible to give a definitive verdict until he undergoes a more thorough examination today.
With less than three weeks to go to the Euro qualifier against Scotland in Glasgow, it’s another midfield worry for O’Neill who has already lost Wes Hoolahan to an ankle injury and could also be without Glenn Whelan who is recovering from a leg fracture.
The Stoke man is still convinced he will be fit for the game on November 14 – and, on that basis, has optimistically been included in O’Neill’s provisional 36-man squad – but the manager conceded that Whelan is definitely engaged in a race against time.
Said O’Neill: “Initially we thought that Glenn would be out for some time but I spoke to him a couple of days ago, and while he’s still struggling a bit, the injury is clearing up and he’s giving himself every possible chance. I thought initially he would be out until early December or Christmas but now the news coming from him is that he’s getting better every day. So I’ll give him every opportunity.
“But Wes is definitely out. That is obviously a blow. He could be missing for anything from eight to ten weeks. I was speaking to him and he is devastated, for both club and country.”
Better news for O’Neill is that he has been able to name both James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman in the squad, after the Everton pair missed out on the games against Gibraltar and Germany.
That they were back in action for their club immediately after those games raised a few eyebrows, not least, it appears, O’Neill’s. But the manager – who has since spoken to Everton manager Roberto Martinez about the players — said he was prepared to give the club the benefit of the doubt.
“I spoke to Seamus beforehand and there’s no doubt about his keenness to play for his country, absolutely. He wanted to get the injury cleared up so he could play for club and country. I didn’t speak to James, who was at that stage in the squad for the game against Man United (the previous Sunday) but according to the physio, he had very little chance of playing, and didn’t play eventually. But the two of them playing three and a half days after a match that we would have deemed really important, I would maybe have had some sort of a concern but I’m prepared to give the benefit of the doubt until proved otherwise.”
Asked if he might consider adopting Giovanni Trapattoni’s practice of requiring players deemed injured by their clubs to come in for assessment by Ireland’s medical team, O’Neill replied: “We could pursue that. I have no problem doing that, if I feel that that’s the way to go. I have no problems resorting to all the things that are available to me if and when the time comes again.”
Emphasising the provisional nature of a squad which sees former Cork City man Brian Lenihan retained after his debut appearance in the senior panel, was O’Neill’s revelation that dual eligibility targets Ipswich Town striker David McGoldrick and Derby County full-back Cyrus Christie could both be added in the coming days, if the necessary paperwork is completed in time. “I don’t think there’s any serious issues,” he remarked, “but it does seemingly take an eternity to sort out.”
Looking ahead to the Glasgow game, O’Neill grinned when informed that Roy Keane had predicted that the game would be “brutal” and “intense”, “not too technical” and with “tackles flying in.”
“I think you nearly always have to temper what Roy says,” he chuckled. “I think there will be, for want of a better word, a type of derby atmosphere attached to the game which means it becomes unpredictable in that sense. Big match, Celts playing each other – I think there’s always something of a brutal nature about it. Some of words he used, I would feel they would be pretty close to the mark. We would have a lot of respect for them but I don’t think we would fear them in the sense of fearing Germany. But that’s not to say that they’ve not got bit of momentum going themselves. It’s a tough game for us, but we’ll give it a go.
“The German game and the result we got there – if that doesn’t give us a boost, nothing will. But if we feel we can be going going around marauding about the place simply because it’s Scotland, we would have to rethink that.”
David Forde (Millwall), Shay Given (Aston Villa), Keiren Westwood (Sheffield Wednesday), Darren Randolph (Birmingham), Rob Elliot (Newcastle); Richard Keogh (Derby), Marc Wilson (Stoke), Seamus Coleman (Everton), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Alex Pearce (Reading), Brian Lenihan (Hull), Stephen Kelly (Reading), Paul McShane (Hull), Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace), Shane Duffy (Blackburn), Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa), Stephen Ward (Burnley); James McCarthy (Everton), Jeff Hendrick (Derby), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Darron Gibson (Everton), Paul Green (Rotherham), Aiden McGeady (Everton), Anthony Pilkington (Cardiff), James McClean (Wigan), Robbie Brady, Stephen Quinn, David Meyler (all Hull); Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Shane Long (Southampton), Daryl Murphy (Ipswich), Jon Walters (Stoke), Kevin Doyle (Crystal Palace), Anthony Stokes (Celtic), Simon Cox (Reading), Conor Sammon (Ipswich).
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