O’Neill sits down to pick team for Wales

self, but O’Shea can help the younger members of the squad prior to the Wales clash. With Brady suspended, Burnley teammate Stephen Ward is the obvious replacement at left-back as he continues to have an excellent season back in the Premier League with Sean Dyche’s side.

He has had a good run of games and started three out of the four World Cup qualifiers after a good Euros campaign over in France. He is reliable and consistent and won’t let Ireland down.

Ward is one of those players who is really appreciated by his managers and teammates and Joey Barton spoke highly of the impact he made.

It will be interesting to see who is selected in Brady’s absence as that offers the option of different systems for Martin O’Neill.

The third member of the Burnley trio is Jeff Hendrick, who returned for the defeat at Swansea last week after a three-match ban. Burnley have not won in his absence — in fact they haven’t won since the end of January.

Hendrick had a slow start to his Premier League career at Turf Moor, but it can take time to settle down after a big move. However, he is a Premier League player, a real powerhouse who is excellent getting from box-to-box, quick, strong and brave enough to take the ball in tight areas.

Burnley travel to Anfield today, looking for their first away win of the season and a double over Liverpool having beaten them 2-0 at Turf Moor earlier in the season.

Liverpool had 26 shots, but Burnley were comfortable. Most of the shots were outside the area, only five were on target, while Burnley had two and got two goals.

When they play teams like Tottenham or Manchester City, they get space and they exploit it. Teams like Burnley make it hard to play against and Liverpool have struggled to break them down.

You just know Sean Dyche will be watching videos of that 2-0 win and recent successes for other clubs, and not the Spurs match.