Injury forces O'Shea out

Manchester United defender John O’Shea has pulled out of the Republic of Ireland’s friendly international against Holland and returned to his club for treatment on an ankle injury.

It means boss Brian Kerr arrived there tonight with a squad of just 20 players for the prestigious match on Saturday night.

O’Shea is one of a number of key players missing from the squad through injury and, although Kerr is disappointed by the list of absentees, he is happy to have the experience of playing strong opposition away from Dublin ahead of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Kerr said: “Our original intention was to get some games that would be a bit different from playing in Dublin where it can be a little bit cosy.

“Unfortunately, we are not going with the squad I would have liked to go with but, having said that, the players we are going with will find it to be a massive experience.

“There are more experienced players that we would have wanted to put out in this type of atmosphere, but they’re not here, so it will be the strongest XI of what we have left.

“The fact that it’s the last match of our run of four in nine days means we don’t have to worry about resting people.

“In each of the last few games we’ve had to think about the next match so it will be nice to pick a team in isolation rather than worrying about other games.”