As the regulars settled into the relaxed routine they have grown so used to in the build up to the Republic's international games, Gary Doherty arrived in Dublin yesterday for tomorrow's friendly with the US hoping to stake a late claim to one of the coveted places in next month's Irish travelling party for Japan.

After a nightmare season, almost all of which he has spent recovering from the broken leg he sustained back in September, the Tottenham player has returned to action just in time to prove his fitness to Mick McCarthy who called him up after both Richard Sadlier and Niall Quinn had withdrawn.

But if the likes of Doherty and Rory Delap (also back in this squad) were in any doubt about how their long absence has affected their chances of slipping into the 23-man squad, the Ireland manager did much to clarify the situation yesterday with his strongest comments yet on the value he attaches to standing by the players that have served him well in the past.

"People sometimes see my loyalty to players as a plus and sometimes as being detrimental to the interests of the team, but I never see it as in any way detrimental. I've had back in spades anything that I've given to the players and that won't change.

"There are players who've missed a couple of games through injury, but it doesn't make them bad players overnight," he added. "And there are players who have come in and done well but there's a big difference between doing well in friendly games and doing it in competitive matches. I've always said that the players who got us to the World Cup would have the best chance of getting there and that still holds now."

The comments were primarily made in reference to Lee Carsley and Mark Kennedy who, he said, would have a considerable amount of time to recover full fitness after joining up with the squad, as long as they had shown that they were fit enough to be selected in the first place.

Doherty, though, who had started to establish himself in the squad when he got injured, is now in it, the manager conceded, because of injuries to others. "To get an injury like that when you'd just got into the fold must be very hard and he's a late comer now, but the fact that he's in at all at least gives him a bit of a chance."

Similarly, Delap's position has slipped somewhat in recent times with the 25-year-old Southampton midfielder having won the last of his six caps two years ago against Greece and last featured on a bench when Ireland played Andorra away at the end of last season. Since then, he has been forced out of several squads by injury, something that has allowed others to stake their claim.

"Some of my own games came as a result of other people being injured so I certainly have no complaints," he said yesterday, "but it has still been disappointing. After being out of the reckoning, though, and with the way the team has performed, there's not a lot I can do.

"Even if I'd been fit the whole time, there's nothing to say that I'd have been involved. The hope now is just to become a regular squad member again, then start getting on the bench and, at some point maybe, make the break into the team. As for the World Cup, I'm still hopeful. I know there's only a small chance, but I'm still hopeful."

Both he and Doherty offer a versatility that still might just swing things in their favour, but if, as expected, Kennedy, Carsley and, of course, Roy Keane, do prove their fitness in time to be included in the squad, then they will have to hope that their prior service is enough to book them tickets to Tokyo ahead of more recent arrivals like Colin Healy and even Steven Reid.

McCarthy, though, made it clear that he is well aware that there may be other injuries between now and the middle of next month when the squad leaves for the Far East. "If everyone was fit then I'd know who my 23 are now, but if I named them before the last of the games in England and a couple of lads picked up knocks I'd look like a bit of a twat, wouldn't I? Even as it is, I might have to name a few lads on stand-by in case anything happens during the games against Sunderland and Nigeria."

McCarthy strongly criticised the decision at the weekend by the GAA's congress to leave Rule 42 unaltered. "I cannot believe that decision," he said. "It has come from the knife and fork brigade at the top, not from the rank and file of the GAA.

"The modern Ireland prides itself on being a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national society, yet we cannot allow one football team to play on another football team's pitch. We have a young and vibrant nation, we accept people from all over the world and we are happy to welcome them into our culture. Yet we still have this nonsense that stops an Irishman playing football on a best pitch in the country."