O’Neill is all business on return to his old haunt
MARTIN O’NEILL already knows where he will be in Russia next month for ITV but ask him which players he will require for the Republic of Ireland internationals against France (May 28) and the USA (June 2) and he is not so sure.
Between injuries and the Championship play-off final, O’Neill will wait until tomorrow’s friendly against Celtic is out of the way before finalising numbers.
For what promises to be an emotive return to Celtic Park where he managed between 2000 and 2005, O’Neill has veteran Jon Walters available for the first time since September.
Walters was one of four Irish captains named by O’Neill in Cork yesterday in his 18-man squad for the Scott Brown Testimonial — Seamus Coleman, James McClean and David Meyler are the others.
As a plus, Bristol City winger Callum O’Dowda returns after injury but the bulk of the 18 players are light in international experience.
No less than seven are uncapped and, of those, goalkeeper Conor O’Malley, midfielder Shaun Williams and strikers Callum Robinson and Graham Burke have never trained with Ireland before.
Burke, the 24-year-old Shamrock Rovers striker, will be asked to play twice in 24 hours as the Hoops are in Sligo tonight in the SSE Airtricity League.
‘I don’t see it being a big problem. I might have a couple of the physiotherapists telling me it’s not the right thing to do. But if he comes out of (Saturday’s) game injuryfree, he’ll want to play some part in the match,’ said O’Neill.
‘I wouldn’t like to judge a player after 20 minutes, I’ll try and get him a half a game or something like that. Graham Burke was a kid when I went to Aston Villa. Seamus McDonagh tells me, in 2010, I might have included him in a pre-season friendly game which had a sprinkling of first team players.
‘I didn’t wait for him to go back (to the League of Ireland). It’s not my fault that he’s back playing for Shamrock Rovers, sometimes the player might want to have a think about that.’
Robinson of Preston, who has yet to get the all-clear in terms of inter- national clearance, is another newcomer O’Neill is keen to look at.
‘I’m looking to see him go out and try to express himself, first of all, and if he can impress in the game then by the time his papers come through, at least he’s had some experience of the squad and he can push on from there.’
O’Neill must cope with the loss of injured trio Darren Randolph, Kieren Westwood and Ciaran Clark, who have been ruled out of the trio of end-of-term games.
In addition, O’Neill has drawn a line through the Aston Villa trio, Conor Hourihane, Scott Hogan and Glenn Whelan, as well as Fulham’s Cyrus Christie for the France game in Paris on May 28.
All four will be on club duty for the Championship play-off at Wembley next Saturday and O’Neill believes it would be unfair to ask them to regroup from the demands of such a game and hightail it to Paris the next day.
‘For the French game, it would be rather tight considering what they’ve gone through in last couple of weeks,’ he said.
O’Neill was unrepentant of his decision to approach the Czech referee Zbynek Proske after the Irish U17’s heart-breaking loss in the European Championships.
‘I went down to find out why he sent the young goalkeeper off and to say it was a really disappointing decision. These are kids, U17s, it was a really big call by the referee.’
‘Roy (Keane) and myself went into the dressing room afterwards. Obviously, it was a scene of devastation. The young boys were absolutely in bits, the disappointment etched in their faces. A few of them with tears in their eyes.’
From Chesterfield on Monday, and Cork yesterday, O’Neill moves on Glasgow tomorrow.
‘‘I loved every minute of my time there, but the torch has passed. I don’t think I am one of those who wants to go back and be intrusive, so I’ve never been back to a competitive game there,’ he revealed.
‘I loved every minute of my time at Celtic’