SHANE LONG HAS suffered another injury blow, and will miss the upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers against Denmark and Gibraltar. 

The FAI announced today that Long has suffered a hamstring injury in training, meaning the Southampton striker will once again miss a pair of qualifiers under Mick McCarthy. 

Injury kept him out of the March games with Gibraltar and Georgia, and this latest blow comes at a particularly bad time given his rich vein of form at the end of the Premier League season. 

He scored four times in the final seven games of Southampton’s successful bid to stay in the Premier League, one of them the fastest goal in Premier League history – coming after just 7.69 seconds against Watford. 

“It’s a disappointment”, McCarthy told the media today.

“I hope it turns out not to be any sort of a blow, of course, because I’m hoping we’ve got other strikers that can do the business for us.

“But certainly, it’s a huge blow for him as well having come in and recovered from injury from the last time, and then picking up an injury this time, so I’m really disappointed for him.

“But look, it’s just the way it is, so he’s got to get back and get fit and hopefully be right for the next ones.

Long’s is the latest injury to befall the Irish camp, following those suffered by Mark Travers, Alan Browne, and Luca Connell. 

The injury leaves McCarthy’s striking options reading David McGoldrick, Seani Maguire, Callum Robinson, Ronan Curtis and Scott Hogan.