James McCarthy trained fully with the Irish squad this morning in Abbbotstown where Paul McShane was the only member of Martin O’Neill’s squad to sit out the session.

Everton had requested earlier in the week that McCarthy have a scan on his knee but O'Neill said on Tuesday that that was entirely routine while his assistant, Roy Keane, said today that he believes the 24 year-old will be available for Friday's game against Gibraltar in Faro.

“He did get a knock last week,” said the Corkman, “but I think if you’re playing midfield in the middle of the park, you should be getting knocks every week. That’s the name of the game.

“You’re hitting people, they’re hitting you and I’m always concerned when lads turn up, particularly midfielders, and they’ve not had knocks. You’re supposed to get knocks. You’re supposed to get knocks in training. It’s part of the game.

“He’s trained today and I think he had a scan yesterday, a precautionary scan, but he’s fine. I think it was his knee. I think he got a knock at the weekend but these Everton players, they’re all fit which is good.”

Keane said that Jon Walters was in good spirits, who arrived into Dublin yesterday morning before training, despite his move away from Stoke City not going through.

“For a player like Jon, he’s experienced,” said the former Manchester United star. “He’s not a young kid. I think maybe the move was on the cards over the weekend but it’s not panned out. But Jon is in a good position. He’s a good player. The fact that a few clubs were interested in him probably helps his confidence.

“He’s at a good club in Stoke where he’s in the last year of his contract so I don’t think that it’s a bad position to be in, personally. He’s obviously with us; he did really well in the last game. I think Jon’s in a good position. He’s not turning up in a negative frame of mind. He was hoping something might happen but deals fall through. That’s the industry that we’re in.”

Of more concern, perhaps, was Aiden McGeady not getting away from Everton on loan but Keane sinsists that it is just a matter of the midfielder redoubling his efforts to get fully fit and back into Roberto Martinez’s team.

“They’ve obviously got a big squad,” he said, “but competition is good for players. Aiden’s just got to knuckle down to try to get into Everton’s first team which is never easy because they’ve got a lot of quality players. They’ve invested as well over the last couple of days but it’s up to Aiden to knuckle down and play regular football because the big problem for us, I’ve said it before, is that players turn up for international week not playing week in week out and it does catch up with you eventually.”