Paul McShane was the only one of 19 Ireland players in Malahide today not to train with the recently released Hull City defender still recovering from the injury inflicted by Marouane Fellaini on the last day of the season.
Manager Martin O'Neill said that he expects everyone to be in contention for Sunday's England game although six; Marc Wilson, Shane Long, Stephen Ward, Aiden McGeady, Wes Hoolahan and Jon Walters are only due to join up with the squad on Tuesday when training will be at the Aviva stadium.
“I think everybody is pretty much Okay,” said O’Neill. “Obviously some players have played for a longer time than others in recent weeks. It’s just a matter of monitoring that for the next couple of days but essentially it’s getting them together again, particularly the players who play in the Championship whose season ended on May 2nd. It’s getting a wee bit of work between now and Sunday into them.”
Asked about the England game and its historical context given what happened the last time the two sides tried to play each other in Dublin, the northerner said that he hoped enough time had passed to make the 1995 riot an irrelevance.
“Of course, it’s 20 years ago since the last debacle,” he said. “I call it a debacle because that’s exactly what it was. Hopefully life has moved on since then and of course it’s a big game and obviously has historic interest. But it’s a great game for us to be involved in; I’ve said that since it was announced.
“That’s what this week is about now,” he continued, “building up to that, building up to the England game and then forcing it against Scotland.”
One of the tasks for the management team this week will be to lift players who have arrived in off disappointing conclusions to their league campaigns in England but O’Neill believes the significance of the games here will help on that front.
“There’ll be some pretty disappointed with how the season ended,” he acknowledged, “those playing at Hull obviously. That would have been a real downer for them. There were one or two others who didn’t make the play-offs as well in the Championship, the Derby players would be particularly disappointed but that’s club level, that’s gone now, it’s a matter of just lifting the players, getting them prepared for this game.”
