While all thoughts were focused on Colin Healy, Steven Reid and Gary Doherty's exclusion from Mick McCarthy's World Cup squad yesterday the manager drew attention to a player who would have been certain of his place in the Republic's starting line-up this summer, never mind the squad of 23, had a knee injury not destroyed his season.

Stephen Carr has not played a competitive game since June of last year, when he lined out in the 2-0 win away to Estonia, but, until early last month, he was still battling to recover in time to regain his right-back slot from Steve Finnan before the World Cup. It wasn't to be. After aggravating the injury on his return to training Carr finally gave up and McCarthy lost one of the few genuine world class players at his disposal.

"We're talking about everyone else who's not made it and who's disappointed," said McCarthy yesterday, "but there's one fella who, in my mind, was the best full-back in Europe when we went to Estonia - and that's Stephen Carr. So, if there's one disappointment for me it's the fact that he's not there. There's a kid who really deserves to be playing on the world stage because he's an absolute star."

Carr's Tottenham team-mate Gary Doherty also had his World Cup hopes all but scuppered by injury after breaking his leg in a League Cup match against Torquay in September. He finally returned to action for Spurs' reserves last month and scored on his international come-back against the United States at Lansdowne Road three weeks ago, but McCarthy deemed that he couldn't be fit enough for the World Cup and was still behind Steve Staunton, Kenny Cunningham, Gary Breen and Andy O'Brien in the queue for centre-back spots in the squad.

Healy and Reid, though, came closest of all, according to McCarthy, to making it in to the squad, ultimately losing out to the manager's loyalty to Lee Carsley and Mark Kennedy.

Healy made an eye-catching impression in his three international appearances after being a surprise call-up for the game in which he made his debut, against Russia in February, having flourished during his loan spell at Coventry following a frustrating season as an afterthought in Martin O'Neill's Celtic plans.

Reid, too, caught the eye since debuting against Croatia last year, with his versatility (left, right or centre of midfield, full-back if required) strengthening his hopes of a World Cup spot. He could still make it, should Kennedy's groin injury fails to clear, but for now all McCarthy can promise him, like Healy, is a bright future.

Manchester United centre-back John O'Shea is also left pondering a clutch of what-might-have-beens, knowing that if injury hadn't deprived him of a run in his club's defence before Christmas, after being called up by Alex Ferguson, he could have had the chance to muscle his way in to the senior squad on a regular basis.

An erratic start to the season with Southampton, followed by suspensions that followed two red cards, proved costly for Rory Delap whose call-up for the United States game was too little too late. After Carr, the unluckiest of all? Perhaps Phil Babb can lay claim to that title. He's just completed the finest season of his club career with Sporting Lisbon, who won the Portuguese title.