SOCCER:KEIREN WESTWOOD and Robbie Keane are expected to be named in Giovanni Trapattoni's squad this afternoon for the Republic of Ireland's European Championship qualifier against Macedonia on Saturday week and the friendly with Uruguay three days later after the pair featured for their clubs at the weekend without any apparent recurrence of their injury problems.
Keane came on 22 minutes from time in West Ham’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Stoke City yesterday and while he wasn’t able to make the sort of impact Avram Grant would have hoped for, Trapattoni will have been encouraged by the way the Dubliner was able to throw himself into things. Glenn Whelan, Jonathan Walters and Marc Wilson all played 90 minutes for the winners.
Westwood couldn’t prevent Coventry City sinking to another defeat in the Championship on Saturday but the goalkeeper showed no ill-effects from the hip/thigh problem that had prevented him starting the midweek game against Doncaster Rovers, something that will come as a significant relief to the Italian manager as he prepares for a key qualifying game without Shay Given.
There will still be considerable interest in which other goalkeepers are named given the fitness problems suffered by Joe and Brian Murphy in recent times. Alan Kelly was at the New Den last Tuesday where Paddy Kenny and David Forde were in action for QPR and Millwall respectively but it is not clear whether either will make the cut today.
Richard Dunne’s availability for the Macedonia match is still very much in doubt although Trapattoni may well name him in the hope his injured shoulder, which is supposed to keep the big central defender sidelined for another two to three weeks, improves sufficiently over the next 10 days for him to make himself available.
The player’s employers, however, are unlikely to be in the mood for doing Dunne any favours after it emerged he and fellow defender James Collins were involved in a row with the coaching staff while on an overnight team-building trip last week.
“I apologise unreservedly for my behaviour on Wednesday night,” said Dunne at the weekend. “It was not acceptable and I am genuinely sorry.”
It is not the first run-in the Ireland international has had with Gerard Houllier or his staff this season and the incident is bound to give rise to further speculation regarding his future at Villa Park.
James McCarthy seems likely to be included in Trapattoni’s squad following what is reported to have been a positive meeting between the two men in England last week. The Wigan midfielder is said to have assured the manager of his commitment to the Irish cause and would be expected to join up with the squad in the event he is included despite the suggestion he is under pressure from his club not to pursue his international ambitions at this time.
Uruguay have named a strong squad for their friendlies this month in Tallinn and Dublin with the World Cup semi-finalists set to assemble most of their leading stars including strikers Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez.
