Young fan’s words of comfort for Seamus
O’neill confident about Coleman’s return after a successful operation
AN Everton fan aged seven made a touching card for Ireland captain Seamus Coleman – as gaffer Martin O’neill said a weekend operation on his leg was a success. The 28-year-old suffered a horrific double break during Friday night’s World Cup qualifier against Wales and will be out for at least six months – a huge blow to Everton who are chasing a European spot. Jake Livingstone, who has a season ticket with his dad and brother in the Park End, wrote: “To Coleman, I hope you get better soon. You’re my favourite player. We will miss you so much and why does it have to be before the derby? “Lots of Love. Your Biggest Fan. Jake.”
THE operation on Seamus Coleman’s double leg break has been deemed a success. But Martin O’neill insists it is still too early to say if the Republic of Ireland captain will play again this year. “Sometimes there are complications afterwards and injuries can be more prolonged, other times it can be clean and clear sailing,” said the Ireland boss yesterday. Everton defender Coleman remains in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin following surgery on Saturday morning. Coleman is in ‘good spirits’ and Ireland team-mates – given the weekend off ahead of tomorrow’s friendly against Iceland – have visited him in hospital. O’neill said: “The operation was successful. Seamus has realised everything that has happened and is obviously
DARREN RANDOLPH suspects the Republic of Ireland’s qualification push is still very much in the melting pot. But the goalkeeper insists Martin O’neill’s charges are sitting pretty in Group D despite being held at home by Wales and surrendering top spot in the process. Football has been the last thing on the players’ minds in the last 48 hours as they rally around skipper Seamus Coleman following his horror leg break. Ahead of tomorrow’s friendly with Iceland, O’neill decided to give his players the weekend off and they only reported back to the team hotel at 8.00pm yesterday. A number of them used their free time to visit Coleman in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin where the Everton defender had successful surgery on Saturday morning. What stomach there is for tomorrow’s game against the Euro 2016 quarter-finalists remains to be seen, but the second-half of 2017 is crunch time for Ireland. Friday’s scoreless draw saw the Boys in Green surrender top spot in the group to Serbia who came from behind to win 3-1 in Georgia on the same day. But O’neill’s charges are only second on goal difference and goalkeeper Randolph insists Ireland are exactly where they want to be. Fourth seeds in the group behind Wales, Austria and Serbia, Randolph would have snapped your hand off for this sort of start. Ireland host Austria in June before a tricky double header in September away to Georgia and home to Serbia, before finishing off in October against Moldova at home and Wales away. Randolph said: “We’ve had a great start and we’ve given ourselves a chance. We still have the other contenders for the group to come here. “But if we can beat them and take points off them, it will be even better for us. We said from the start that it’s going to be one of those groups where teams take points off each other.” On that point, Serbia made hard work of their win in Georgia while Austria needed an injury-time goal to make their 2-0 home win over minnows Moldova look respectable. The winners of Group D qualify automatically for the World Cup in Russia while the eight best runners-up from the nine groups contest the play-off. If Ireland beat Austria in June and Wales – who will be without banned Gareth Bale – come away from Serbia empty handed, it will shape up as a direct shootout for top spot. Randolph added: “There’s not going to be one out-andout team that runs away with it like in other groups. “I think it’s going down to the last game probably there’s definitely more points that are going to be taken off the other teams. “For our next game, we will hopefully have everybody back although we will obviously be missing Seamus. If we have everyone else back, that will be good.” West Ham goalkeeper Randolph is drawing on the positives from Friday night’s result and claims it was a point earned, not two dropped. “I thought it would be a similar game to what it was,” said the Bray man. “I didn’t think there would be much in it considering it’s two strong teams in the group. “Everyone knew each other and in terms of what was at stake in the game, I didn’t think I’d be overly worked. “I knew I’d have one or two things to do on the night but thankfully I kept a clean sheet. We got a point and now we move on.”