Stephen Ward will miss Sunday night's European Championship qualifier against Poland in Warsaw having stayed behind, despite Martin O'Neill now saying that the Dubliner was fit enough to feature in the game if needed.
“We’ve got a couple of problems but hopefully we’ve got enough in reserve to cope,” said O’Neill at the official pre-match press conference at the national stadium in the Polish capital.
“Stephen Ward isn’t actually one of them. I’ve left behind because I didn’t think he’d be able to do the two games in three days because he has barely kicked a ball for Burnley. But he is actually fine; I thought he might have done more damage to himself than he has.”
Wes Hoolahan is one of several other players, he suggested, whose capacity to start this game after having given so much in the win over Germany on Thursday, still has to be finally assessed before a call is made on the starting line up. Seamus Coleman, he insisted, is available for selection.
“I think the starting line up might be a little bit different but not too different,” he said. “I don’t think there’ll be too many changes. I think Seamus is going to be fine. Glenn Whelan and James McClean are coming back from suspension too and they are all wanting to play really.”
The northerner said he was delighted with the performance of James McCarthy on Thursday: “It was really nice to see him play as brilliantly as we have been thinking he was capable of doing for some time. He took on that responsibility and handled it brilliantly and I am hoping that some of the older players, whose experience can still be a big help in some situations, along with some of the younger boys, like this man beside me (28 year-0ld Shane Long) can take that all on and keep that momentum going for us; not just in this game but in the near future. “
Asked about the mood in the camp after Thursday’s win, he seemed slightly amused. “If you’ve just beaten the world champions,” he observed, “and you’re coming into your next game on a downer then you probably shouldn’t be in the game.”
The Poles, who Ireland have never actually beaten in Warsaw, are themselves without two important players, left back Maciej Rybus and, more significantly, Ajax striker Arkadiusz Milik, due to injuries sustained in the draw with Scotland.
But the Irish manager insisted that the hosts still present a very major obstacle to securing automatic qualification.
“He (Milik) is a brilliant player; he’s been exceptional, particularly in the tournament, but I don’t think they’re short of readymade replacements. Lewandowski... I think outside of the very best players in the world, Messi and Ronaldo, I think he’s in a bracket of players who are not very far behind. So when you have players of that calibre playing for you then clearly you’re going to be able to present a challenge.
“But, obviously, we know what we have to do.”
Asked about the fact that the Poles, having beaten the Germans a year ago, themselves struggled a few days later against Scotland, O’Neill said: “I take your point entirely. That’s absolutely right. We were absolutely at our utmost against Germany and sometimes with the quick turnaround that can be difficult to replicate but that’s what we have to do.
“We have to hope that we have the reserves of energy but we have the drive and the determination to do something about it. We know with the back to back games it is very difficult but that applies to the other teams as well.”
As for his own future, beyond the conclusion of this qualifying campaign, O’Neill said that the manager is unchanged. Whatever the reports have come out, nothing has changed.. I have spoken to John in the past and we’ll speak again.
“I don’t think it’s a distraction because I don’t anything there could be any distraction from what we have to do. The game is absolutely and utterly what we are thinking about. Everything else will take care of itself in due course.”
