The Irish squad assembled in Dublin yesterday ahead of Saturday's European Championship qualifier in Stuttgart, with no new injury concerns to trouble manager Steve Staunton following the withdrawal on Monday of Paddy Kenny and Stephen Kelly.
Stephen Elliott came through Sunderland's game against West Bromwich Albion safely on Monday, while Andy O'Brien never left the Portsmouth bench in their 4-0 win at Middlesbrough. The central defender has yet to make an appearance for his club this season, the arrival of Sol Campbell having limiting his opportunities at Fratton Park.
The squad, including newcomer Sean St Ledger, will train in Malahide this morning and again tomorrow before departing for Germany in the afternoon.
St Ledger, who qualifies to play for the Republic through his Carlow-born grandmother, was, somewhat bizarrely, recommended to Staunton by Ron Atkinson after he had spotted the player during filming of Sky's fly-on-the-wall documentary Big Ron Manager at Peterborough earlier this year.
St Ledger has complained about his portrayal in the series, which shows him having heated arguments with members of the coaching staff.
The 21-year-old, a product of Peterborough's Academy, moved on to Preston North End in July, for a fee of €225,000. Atkinson believes the player can develop into a top-class attacking midfielder, but until now he has played most of his football in defence, either as a central defender or right back.
Meanwhile, German coach Joachim Loew, who is already without four defenders, lost another member of his squad when VfL Wolfsburg striker Mike Hanke withdrew yesterday with tonsillitis.
With four more strikers - the first-choice pairing of Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski, and Oliver Neuville and Gerald Asamoah - available to him, Loew, will not be calling up a replacement for the games against Ireland and San Marino four days later.
Loew's chief task is to put together a new central defensive pairing after the loss of Christoph Metzelder and Per Mertesacker through injury, as well as the players who would probably have replaced them, Robert Huth and Jens Nowotny. Malik Fathi (Hertha Berlin) and Manuel Friedrich (Mainz), who played in the 3-0 win over Sweden this month, are likely to be called in.
Another member of the German squad, David Odonkor, completed his €6-million move from Borussia Dortmund to Real Betis yesterday. The 22-year-old winger was a surprise inclusion in Germany's World Cup squad, but came off the bench in their second game to set up a last-minute winner for Oliver Neuville against Poland.
