Martin O’Neill offers gloomy assessment on Stephen Ward’s race for fitness

Stephen Ward would appear to be in an unwinnable race against time for the Euro 2016 meeting with Poland after Martin O’Neill revealed the player was due to undergo minor surgery on his ankle.

The Burnley full-back has seen only three minutes of first-football since December because of the problem and, while the Ireland manager is still refusing to rule him out of contention for Sunday, this latest setback suggests he has little hope of making the cut.

Speaking at Gannon Park yesterday, O’ Neill explained: “Stephen has a bit of a problem with his ankle. We think we’re getting to the bottom of it now with a couple of scans.