Stephen Kenny hopeful ‘brilliant’ Caoimhín Kelleher will face Serbia

Caoimhin Kelleher: The Ringmahon Rangers graduate has impressed when deputising for Alisson with the Anfield club this season

Stephen Kenny will have no concerns over Caoimhín Kelleher’s limited game time if the Liverpool goalkeeper can recover from injury in time to make his Republic of Ireland debut away to Serbia in next week’s opening World Cup qualifier.

The Ringmahon Rangers graduate has impressed when deputising for Alisson with the Anfield club this season but an abdominal injury has left his availability up in the air even after his inclusion yesterday in the 29-man squad.

“We don’t know, we’re still unsure if he will be fully fit to play,” said the Ireland boss. “To be honest with you, he’s not that long out. He’s only been out a couple of weeks. He’s a very fit lad, he’s had a very good season.

“He’s had five appearances for Liverpool and two (of them) in the Champions League. He’s done very well and I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to get him up to speed if he was okay, but we’re not sure whether he will be okay. We’ll wait to see on that.”

Kenny is prepared to play the waiting game given his regular No.1, Darren Randolph, has already been ruled out for the visit to Belgrade, the follow-up qualifier at home to Luxembourg and the friendly against Qatar in Hungary.

Cork native Kelleher was first-choice for Kenny during his time over the U21s and was, according to the Dubliner, “brilliant” during that time. His comfort with a ball at his feet chimes with Kenny’s desire to play it out from the back.

Three other goalkeepers have been included in a larger-than-usual squad. Mark Travers, recalled to Bournemouth recently from a loan spell at Swindon Town, is next in line should Kelleher prove unable to make his senior international debut.

“They’ve recalled him, which is unfortunate, because he was getting a lot of games,” said Kenny.

“We’ll wait and see whether he plays against Southampton in the cup because he has tended to play in the cup competitions.

“They have a cup quarter-final on Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see. I’ve no knowledge on whether he will play or not play. Mark has already played for Ireland having started one game and come on in another. He’s the next in basically.”

Neither Kelleher nor Travers have played since early February and, while Randolph has served Ireland well during times of inactivity at club level, this is far from ideal, given his replacements’ inexperience at this level.

Gavin Bazunu has impressed on loan at Rochdale but this is just his first squad. Kieran O’Hara hasn’t played for Burton Albion since the New Year and Sheffield Wednesday’s Kieren Westwood is apparently only 60% after a recent return from injury.

That’s only the beginning in terms of headaches.

It’s less than a year since Kenny described his back four as among Europe’s best but Shane Duffy is enduring a torrid time at Celtic and John Egan, described by the manager last week as “critical” to how Ireland play, is out injured.

There is, he admitted, no like-for-like replacement for the latter but Ciaran Clark is at least playing regularly for Newcastle United while Dara O’Shea has 29 appearances to his name with West Brom who are still a Premier League club for now.

One of them will likely partner Duffy going by the manager’s words when he acknowledged the Derryman’s difficulties in Scotland before launching into a staunch defence of a centre-back who has “never let Ireland down”.

The problem is that Kenny is scrambling to cover all areas of the park right now. James McCarthy, another described last year as central to his plans, is also out, Adam Idah hasn’t made it either and James McClean and Aaron Connolly are others with questionable fitness.

The news on Connolly was, at least, positive with Kenny confident that the Brighton striker would pass muster despite his recent fracturing of a rib and a reported sanction for breach of Covid-19 guidelines by his club.

Here’s hoping that’s the last of the Covid crises for now.

Injuries and pandemic aside, Ireland convene again with a number of players struggling to get minutes into their legs and onto their CVs even when fit and this ahead of a game against a serious Serbian side now under the watchful eye of Dragan Stojkovic.

“Some of the players are not getting the action that you want, like Callum Robinson who has not played in a while and is an important player. That’s the reality of where we are at the moment. It doesn’t mean that we can’t come together and put in a really strong performance in Serbia.

“When I look at them, they’ve got seven or eight attacking players playing at top clubs around Europe and it’s hard to predict what three they’ll have because they have real strength in depth in their attacking play. It’s immaterial really because we’ve got to focus on getting ourselves right.”

That meant brushing aside any lingering questions about Damien Duff’s departure from the coaching staff back in January and any other leftovers raised from a difficult 2020, but some obstacles simply can’t be avoided.

Duff’s replacement, Anthony Barry, will have next to no time to work with the players, some of whom won’t be able to report for duty until Monday morning for a game to be played almost 2,000 kilometres away two days later.

“It’s the same for Serbia to be honest,” said Kenny. They’re in the same boat.”