NATIONS CUP:SÉAMUS COLEMAN and Ciarán Clark will make their senior Republic of Ireland international debuts in tomorrow night's game against Wales, it was confirmed last night by Giovanni Trapattoni who has lost Robbie Keane, James McCarthy and Keith Treacy in addition to Liam Lawrence and Leon Best to injury.
Despite his hope that the Donegalman might develop into a top-class attacking right back over the coming years, Coleman, the Italian said, will start on the right side of midfield for the Nations Cup game while Clark will be used on the left side of the defence.
The pair, he said, will get opportunities, “not just in this game but also in the qualifiers”, a comment that seemed to suggest Clark, in particular, has a chance of very quickly making the place his own if he can impress on this occasion.
Though he prefers to play at centre-half, Clark, a former skipper of the English Under-20 side whose mother and father, Peggy and Michael, are from Leitrim and Donegal respectively, is clearly open to the idea of succeeding Kevin Kilbane as Ireland’s number three even if he is careful to suggest he sees the target as being a somewhat longer term one.
“I think so, yeah. But I’ve just got to play as well as I can and hopefully impress. I’ve got to try and stay in the squad. There are a number of players who aren’t here who might be here for the next meet-up so there are a lot of people to choose from. I’ve got to keep training and playing hard and just see what might happen over the next couple of years.”
Clark, who switched his allegiance after Richard Dunne met his parents at a pre-season game against Valencia last summer, said he was excited by the prospect of making his senior debut.
“From a young age we have been a big Irish family and that is always what I wanted to do,” he said. “It was a good experience being with England. Ireland never came in at the time and that was just the path that things took but this is where I really wanted to be. Now I’ve made my decision and I would be honoured to be involved and hopefully I will be.”
Asked about reports, meanwhile, that Kilbane was upset by being informed via a fax to his club, Huddersfield Town, that he was not required to come in for this game, Trapattoni insisted he had sent a text message to the player on the day the squad was released.
He was, he said, surprised if it had not been received.
He seemed a little taken aback too that James McCarthy will again be unavailable to him after the Wigan midfielder was withdrawn by his club whose medical staff, the Italian said, felt it be better if the player got the opportunity to rest having taken “a couple of knocks” in Saturday’s defeat of Blackburn, only his second game after returning from a long-term injury.
“It is a pity,” said Trapattoni because it would have been a good opportunity for him. I like him and could have looked at him in two different positions, behind the strikers and in midfield but it is not a problem, there will be other opportunities.”
The loss of Keane to what is said to be a calf strain will potentially pose more of a problem for Trapattoni with Avram Grant announcing immediately after yesterday’s defeat by Birmingham that while the Ireland skipper would be fit again by next weekend, he would not be travelling to Dublin.
