Darron Gibson will return to the Irish team against Oman tomorrow evening almost a year after he tore his cruciate ligament playing against Kazakhstan, an injury that left him sidelined for the rest of last season.
Ireland manager Martin O'Neill said that Gibson would be one of a number of players whose match fitness he would gauge by giving them starts in the home friendly with Kevin Doyle, Stephen Ward and James McClean amongst the others who could potentially benefit.
James McCarthy appears to be out of the game, though, with O'Neill suggesting that the Everton midfielder, who was struggling this morning with blisters on his feet, will be left to concentrate on being fit and available for Sunday's first qualifying game against Georgia in Tbilisi.
Jon Walters also missed the bulk of the squad's training session this morning with a strain that required a scan yesterday but the Stoke City striker is expected to be fine by the weekend and could still feature against Oman.
O'Neill hinted that Shay Given and Rob Elliott will share the goalkeeping duties and the 38 year-old veteran of 125 international looking likely to start as the manager continues to weigh up the scale of his potential to contribute over the weeks and months ahead.
"We're fine," said O'Neill when asked how he feels the squad stands five days ahead of the start of the new campaign, "even if one or two might not have have played. Seamus Coleman has come back strong from his hamstring injury which is what you'd have wanted.
"James McCarthy is a concern and Jeff Hendrick went off playing for Derby after 25 minutes which is disappointing because he had been getting stronger and more confident. But those types of set-backs.... everyone has them, they're going to happen. This is not a defence mechanism. We're strong, ready to go."
Gibson described the news that he is set to start against Oman as “a big opportunity,” and said that his long spell on the sidelines recovering from last year’s knee injury had left him with a great deal of time to reflect on his relative lack of progress at this level.
“It made me realise that I’m not getting any younger,” said the 26 year-old. “That it’s now or never. I need to push on and play more games.”
