David Sneyd reports from Abbotstown

HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSSON ADMITS his Republic of Ireland squad is not in a good place as they prepare for the defining World Cup qualifiers with Portugal and Hungary.

While Evan Ferguson has been named in the 25-man panel and is keen to lead the line, the Boys in Green boss acknowledged some of the struggles for his players at club level.

New York City left back Kevin O’Toole was a surprise call-up, but that was an inclusion forced upon on Hallgrímsson due to injuries. The American-born defender has been on the FAI radar for over a year and had been set to be brought in for the summer but his international clearance wasn’t finalised.

Robbie Brady, Callum O’Dowda and Josh Honohan are all unavailable due to injury while Ryan Manning is suspended for the visit of Portugal.

“Many of our players are struggling at the moment, not playing well for the clubs, even fighting for minutes. It’s a different situation from September when we had everyone playing and scoring, man-of-the-match performances. Let’s hope it’s just the reverse,” Hallgrímsson said.

“We had players coming in high in September and we didn’t play well. Hopefully now it’s going to be the reverse. They are struggling at the clubs but they will play well for Ireland. That’s our hope.”

Hallgrímsson confirmed that Ferguson, who suffered an ankle injury for AS Roma last week, has returned to training with his club and will be assessed when he joins up in Dublin this weekend.

“Maybe [we] have the option of playing him only for the second game. He has been key to our goals and scoring for us. We’ll call him in and assess him but we are positive that he will be ready,” the manager said, confirming that Celtic’s Johnny Kenny is on standby.

“We were thinking about calling him in. He would be the next in line up front. His recent two or three games, he’s been scoring and looks lively and has the confidence from his coach. He’s a little bit different than the others we have, going in behind, a poacher in the box. I think he scored three goals in his last two games so he’s on a high at the moment.”

One player who is not, though, is Sammie Szmodics. He underwent knee surgery and then posted on social media rallying against “keyboard warriors” that doubted his international commitment after pulling out of games in the last two windows only to then feature for his club soon after.

“We’ve spoken to him and Sammy has always been really honest to me. And if the club says he’s injured and he says he’s injured, there’s no reason to doubt that, in my opinion. And he’s always been honest to us,” Hallgrímsson said.

“At this stage, he has a serious injury, so he will be out for a long time. So that’s why he’s not included in the squad now. But definitely he wanted to come in before that injury and show everyone how dedicated he is and I have no reason to doubt him at all.”

Ireland are third in their group, one point behind Hungary who play Armenia away before the Portugal game kicks off later that evening.

“We have the privilege of knowing the result from Armenia playing Hungary before we kick off, that game will be finished. So that’s on the day we know what we need against Portugal. We have a few scenarios from that game. If Armenia wins or there is a draw, a win in Hungary is enough for us. So that’s two of maybe four scenarios we have.

“If Hungary will win with one goal, or if Hungary wins, we always need at least a draw. But if Hungary wins with more than two, three goals, we need to win, to draw and then win with three goals away in Hungary. So we will know what we need in this game against Portugal before we kick off.

“And that’s a benefit to us. But still, it doesn’t change the way that we will start the game and play the game. But we will need to take then maybe calculated risks as the game progresses.”