PICKING UP CAUTIONS is inevitable in football but Ireland need to steer clear of silly bookings, according to assistant manager Roy Keane.
Heading into Saturday’s World Cup play-off first leg away to Denmark, there are 10 Irish players walking a tight-rope as one more yellow card will mean they miss the return tie at the Aviva Stadium in seven days’ time.
David Meyler, who captained the side during their last two qualifiers, is suspended for the trip to Copenhagen after a late foul on Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy, while Robbie Brady has seen yellow during the current campaign for kicking the ball away.
“You’re always saying to players ‘Do nothing daft’, but it’s part of the game and it will be the same for Denmark,” Keane said this afternoon.
Football is a physical game but you don’t want lads picking up daft yellow cards for kicking the ball away, like we’ve received in the campaign.
“Meyler got a yellow card in the last minute [against Wales] but I think if the ball is there to be won, then you have to go for it. If you mistime it then you suffer the consequences. You can’t be putting it in a player’s mindset not to be going for a ball.
“It’s all part of the game — the physical side of it.”
The Boys in Green trained today and while captain Seamus Coleman (double leg-break), Jon Walters (groin), James McCarthy (hamstring) and Richard Keogh (groin) are all ruled out, Stephen Ward sat out the session along with Jeff Hendrick, who is now the biggest doubt.
The Burnley midfielder went for a scan on a suspected glute problem and Ireland’s medical team will know more after that.
“No real news on Jeff, he obviously didn’t train today,” added Keane. “It’s Tuesday so I’m not personally over-worried. Come Thursday or Friday if he’s not training, then yeah. We’ll see how the next few days go.
“He’s a bit sore and he got 65 minutes over the weekend. You’ll probably get an update from the manager tomorrow. Wardy didn’t train as he’s looking after his knee.”
Under Martin O’Neill, this group of players have been able to dig out several huge results over the past four years. So are they now a big-game team?
In our experience, we’ve worked with the players and we know they can turn up,” was Keane’s reply. “We’ve had disappointments, of course — Serbia recently and the Scotland games. There have been big question marks put to the players and they’ve come up with the answers.
“They will need to do that again on Saturday because we’ll be under the cosh. Denmark have got a lot of skillful players with good options going forward. Obviously [Christian] Eriksen is a really big player for them. They’re big and strong, they’ve got good experience in the team, good energy and legs.”
Tottenham playmaker Eriksen scored eight goals and provided three assists in 10 qualifiers, but Ireland have been able to keep star men such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gareth Bale and Edin Dzeko quiet in recent years.
“Hopefully we’ll have players in the team who will know what to do and not give him time and space,” said Keane. “The really good players will get that anyway as they create it themselves.
“He’s a big player for them and at club level, but we’ve come up against some really good players before and found a way to stop them. That is one of the big challenges we face over the next week or so.”
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