Sunderland's Niall Quinn and Rory Delap of Derby County both withdrew from Mick McCarthy's Republic of Ireland squad for Wednesday's friendly international against Finland yesterday. The news followed Saturday's announcement by Manchester United that Roy Keane would not be travelling to Dublin because of what was described as "a tight hamstring".
Quinn, who is one goal away from setting a new scoring record for the Republic, misses this week's match because of a back problem while Delap, who has been playing up front himself for Derby of late, is ruled out due to an Achilles tendon injury.
"In one sense I'm disappointed," said McCarthy last night "but in another this will give me the opportunity to give a few different people a game which is something I had considered doing in the first place."
Asked if he felt the players would have been fit to travel had the game been a competitive one, McCarthy remarked that "if they're injured, they're injured. That happens sometimes whether it's a competitive game or not, the important thing now is that I just have to get on with it."
With four players - Robbie Keane, Gary Breen, Gary Kelly and Ian Harte - all involved in games with their clubs yesterday, the Ireland manager will not know for sure until this morning how he is fixed for the match but, if everybody who is expected turns up, then, he says, he will not be drafting any more players into the squad.
"Well, John O'Shea will stay on and train with us for the next couple of days but after that I should have 19 players which should be plenty," he said. "We only have a couple of training sessions anyway so unless something unforeseen happens I don't see that there's a great deal to be gained by bringing in anybody else."
