Soccer: More injury woe for McIlroy

Neil Lennon and Ian Nolan have become the latest players to pull out of the Northern Ireland squad for next Wednesday’s friendly against Liechtenstein.

Celtic have told Northern Ireland Lennon’s knee cannot stand up to two matches in four days and their Scottish Cup semi-final against Ayr on Saturday must take preference.

Lennon’s withdrawal means he will have played only once for the Irish since last June.

A disappointed Northern Irish boss Sammy McIlroy said: ‘‘Neil’s pulled out with a knee injury.

‘‘He’s got this build up of fluid in his knee. Basically we’ve been told that if he plays for Celtic on Saturday in the cup, then he won’t be able to play for us on Wednesday.’’

Nolan has pulled out with a hamstring injury and the Wigan full-back has become the third defender to withdraw from McIlroy’s already threadbare squad for the game in Vaduz.

This was just what McIlroy did not want to hear and he had already lost Peter Kennedy and Danny Griffin through injury, while he had agreed to leave out Aaron Hughes, Michael Duff of Cheltenham and Rochdale’s Pat McCourt at the request of their clubs.

McIlroy has called up the uncapped Ciaran Toner to provide cover and the Tottenham midfielder can operate at right-back if needed.

West Ham midfielder Grant McCann can also play at left-back and he may well be needed in that position given McIlroy’s selection problems.

McIlroy is down to just four fit defenders in his squad and he said: ‘‘It’s becoming a farce.

‘‘It doesn’t matter if you’re playing Germany or Liechtenstein. How can you properly prepare a team with so many withdrawals?

‘‘If you add Gerry Taggart in, who’s got a long-term injury, to those other boys, that means I’m missing seven defenders.

‘‘And we haven’t even had the weekend games yet. God help us if we lose any more players.’’