Jeff Hendrick looks set to leave the Irish camp today in order to complete a move to a Premier League club but the 24-year-old player's destination remained up for grabs last night, as Burnley appeared to have recovered lost momentum in the race to sign him.

The club had made three bids for the Dubliner but none had matched Derby's valuation and when Hull City agreed a fee for him on Monday, it appeared the move had been successfully hijacked.

Sean Dyche, though, is believed to be anxious to bring the attacking midfielder to Turf Moor and Burnley are believed to have at least matched the €11.5 million that was already on the table from their rivals Hull, who were busy yesterday completing three other deals.

Robbie Brady is another member of the Ireland squad who has been expected to be targeted in the run-up to the window closing, but early summer interest from West Ham and Leicester City didn't lead to a deal and there was no concrete news yesterday of any Premier League side moving for him. That, though, could easily change.

Martin O’Neill, in any case, says he appreciates the realities of playing a friendly international on the day the window closes and has told those players involved in moves they are free to go if they have to.

Significant progress

“In terms of preparation,” he said at his pre-match press conference, “you talk about some players maybe having to leave to have medicals if there are opportunities at clubs. That’s just part of it now with this particular week. Hopefully, after Wednesday evening, on Thursday morning, it will all clear up and we can get our minds totally set on Serbia.”

David Forde, who has just made a move to Portsmouth on loan for the season, has withdrawn from the squad for the games against Oman and Serbia, in order to nail down his first team place at the League Two club. In his place, Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers has been called up, leaving the 34 year old facing into a hectic week as he juggles training and travelling as part of the international squad – with league games against Bohemians on Friday and, just 13 hours or so after the players are due to arrive back home from Belgrade, play in Sligo next Tuesday.

There was no significant progress on the injury front with Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy still effectively laid up. "Seamus is doing fine at this minute," said the manager. "He hasn't joined in yet, obviously he wouldn't play in the game against Oman. It would be the same for James, he has a bit of a groin problem.

“Has just joined us, came in last night. He’s just being assessed at the minute, he won’t be ready for the Oman but we’ll see how he is over the next 48 hours.”

Both Robbie Keane and Shane Long did train, however, and both are expected to feature this evening with Keane set to start what will be his last international game.

Amid all the talk of players moving and signing deals, meanwhile, O’Neill joked his way out of a question about whether his own contract renewal has been signed.

“We’re there,” he said before adding, “it’s about to be signed... in the next year and a half. It should be close, honestly.”