david_smith
Martin O’Neill has an injury crisis on his hands just two days before Ireland’s upcoming World Cup qualifier against Georgia.
Daryl Murphy, Stephen Quinn,Aiden McGeady, Keiren Westwood, Anthony Pilkington and Kevin Doyle will all miss both the Georgia and Moldova games respectively, and several other players are major doubts.
Harry Arter, who has been in excellent form for Bournemouth, is awaiting the results of a scan after he suffered a groin injury at the weekend. Eunan O’Kane is still with the squad, but he is also carrying an injury.
James McCarthy is unlikely to be fit enough, as he continues his own recovery from groin surgery. Speaking about the Everton midfielder’s chance of playing, O’Neill said;
“If these games were coming up in 10 or 12 days’ time I wouldn’t have any problem and I don’t think he would have any problem. It’s just they’ve come a wee bit too quickly.”
Murphy’s injury means that Adam Rooney has received a call up, and the striker will be hoping to put his own injury nightmare behind him, and Stephen Gleeson and Jonny Hayes will also stay on with the squad.
Aside from Arter and McCarthy, it is unlikely that many of these injury absentees would be natural starters, but the injury outbreak has limited the Irish manager’s options nonetheless.
