The day after Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy welcomed Keith Gillespie back into the international fold to face the strength of the Czech Republic and spoke enthusiastically of Gillespie's recent rehabilitation at Blackburn Rovers, McIlroy was yesterday forced to spread less positive news about his 26-yearold winger.

"We woke up this morning to a blow with Keith Gillespie," said McIlroy. "He's got a very, very sore neck at the moment. We don't exactly how he's going to be. The next 24 hours are going to be important. We did some technical work this morning and obviously Keith wasn't involved.

"He said he felt a little tension in his neck yesterday afternoon and overnight it's got worse. We're not ruling anything out at the minute, the physio says he's got a chance. But he was in our plans, now we might have to look at something else."

Ice packs and anti-inflammatory tablets were being employed on Gillespie, though McIlroy may wait until tomorrow morning before deciding upon his line-up.

With Gillespie's younger team-mate at Blackburn, Damien Johnson, in the squad, plus Birmingham City's Jon McCarthy, McIlroy has options on the right wing. But neither player has Gillespie's experience.

McIlroy also announced that with Steve Lomas suspended and Gerry Taggart injured, Ipswich Town's Jim Magilton would captain the side. Magilton has been captain twice before, against Germany and Yugoslavia. As he jokingly pointed out yesterday, Northern Ireland lost both games.