Defender Shane Duffy looks all but certain to make Ireland's squad for the European Championships after Marc Wilson had to admit defeat in his battle to recover from the knee injury that has sidelined him for the last four months.

Martin O'Neill said he was sorry Wilson would not now be available to him, but the manager was full of praise for the 24-year-old from Derry who has survived an initial cut to the squad that left fellow defenders Paul McShane and Alex Pearce on standby for the tournament.

Johnny Hayes and Anthony Pilkington have also been bumped back down the queue as the deadline for O'Neill to name his 23 approaches.

However, Duffy appears to be safe after impressing the manager with his form at Blackburn and during his appearance for Ireland in the Switzerland friendly a couple of months ago.

“I don’t want to heap an awful lot of expectation on him but I think he’s done fine,” said O’Neill. “I also think that he displayed against Switzerland that he can be a threat in the opposition box too. But I don’t want to put everything into one game; he has played all season as well.”

Duffy has actually played 42 games for his club in the campaign just finished, just short of twice as many as the season before, and scored four goals.

“Paul [McShane] was obviously disappointed but I think he feels that the other players are in front of him at this minute and I have to say that young Duffy has come to the fore and done really fine,” O’Neill said.

Disappointing

As for Wilson, O’Neill made it clear that the news that he would not be in a position to join the squad had not come as a surprise to either party.

“He is gone,” he said. “It’s a pity but he knew anyway. I asked him how he was and he said not great. He is still feeling pain in his knee kicking the ball. It added to the length of time he’s been out so it’s a no go.

“It’s disappointing for him naturally as he’s been a big part of the squad but every day he wasn’t training it was another day gone past. Once someone has not played for quite some time you have to think of alternatives. He’s going to come over here on Wednesday to join up with the lads for a few days . . . he’s pretty popular. A strange boy [laughs] but pretty popular!”

Dundalk's Gary Rogers may get another opportunity to train with the squad as it seems that Shay Given may have to take a break from training for a day to stick with his own fitness programme, something that would leave the squad with only one goalkeeper at present.

“I might bring him in if I need to,” said O’Neill.