SOCCER: John O'Shea's hopes of breaking into Mick McCarthy's squad for the World Cup appeared to suffer another blow yesterday when he was named in the under-21 panel for this month's friendly international against Denmark in Cork.
The Waterford-born defender is one of 22 players, four of them on standby, named by Don Givens for Tuesday week's game at Turner's Cross. It will be the played under the new floodlights at the venue.
He would, however, have been hoping to make it into Mick McCarthy's squad for the senior game, also against Denmark, the next day, something that only looks possible now if some of those ahead of him in the pecking order cry off through injury.
O'Shea was due to play for Manchester United's reserves against Blackburn last night after being left out of the first-team squad for the Bayern Munich game. His first-team opportunities have been fairly limited since he returned from a groin injury that kept him out for three games around Christmas, although there is little doubt that he has a bright future at Old Trafford after signing a new four-year contract only last week.
With little enough first-team football to speak of, though, the 20-year-old looks to have slipped out of McCarthy's reckoning, particularly in the wake of Newcastle United regular Andy O'Brien's fine showing against Russia last month.
Givens has made two changes from the squad he gathered together for European Championship qualifier against Cyprus, with Richie Byrne and Dwayne Matthis coming in for Damien Delaney and Michael Keane.
Byrne is one of just two Eircom League players in the panel, with Brian Shelley of Bohemians also included. Four more, Cork City's Colm Patrick O'Brien and Alan Bennett, as well as Gary Dempsey of Waterford United and Shelbourne's Wesley Houlihan, have been invited to train with the squad during their preparations for the game.
Tottenham's Chris Hughton, meanwhile, says he has not given up hope that Steve Carr might yet play first-team football before the end of the season. The 25-year-old right back suffered a setback in training this week only days after taking part in a practice match.
The Dubliner had a scan on his knee on Tuesday and the club are currently waiting on the results, but Hughton says that while the problems the defender is encountering are a cause for concern he still has some chance of playing in the Premiership before the summer. If he does manage that then McCarthy may still opt to include him in his 23-strong travelling party for Japan.
There is more encouraging news regarding Carr's Spurs team-mate Gary Doherty, who was included in the club's reserve-team squad for last night's game against Charlton.
"I played in a practice game against the youths on Saturday," said Doherty earlier this week "and felt quite good. Hopefully I'll get a half against Charlton and we'll see how it goes then."
UNDER-21 SQUAD: Joe Murphy (Tranmere Rovers), Graham Stack (Arsenal), John Thompson (Nottingham Forest), John O'Shea (Manchester United), Jim Goodwin (Celtic), Brian Shelley (Bohemians), Keith Foy (Nottingham Forest), Brian O'Callaghan (Barnsley), Richie Byrne (Shamrock Rovers), Thomas Butler (Sunderland), Liam Miller (Celtic), Michael Doyle (Celtic), Dwayne Matthis (Huddersfield Town), Brendan McGill (Sunderland/Carlisle United), Shaun Byrne (West Ham), Andy Reid (Nottingham Forest), Graham Barrett (Arsenal/Colchester United), Ben Burgess (Blackburn Rovers/Brentford). Stand-bys: Michael Keane (Preston North End), Brian Cash (Nottingham Forest), Joe Gamble (Reading), Clifford Byrne (Sunderland).
