Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IT’S MAC THE STRIFE FOR IRELAND BID
CROCKED McCarthy’s KO’d by groin problem
ROY HODGSON has delivered an injury blow to the Republic of Ireland by declaring it would be “impossible” for James McCarthy to be involved in this month’s World Cup qualifiers.
The Crystal Palace boss revealed the midfielder, 30, suffered a recurrence of the groin strain that sidelined him for a month. McCarthy limped out of last Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United and Hodgson expects him to be in the treatment room for at least another four weeks.
That would rule the former Everton ace out of the opening qualifier in Serbia on March 24 followed by Luxembourg’s visit to Dublin three days later.
Hodgson said: “It is a definite [groin] strain, there’s no question of that. It’s not an easy strain, either, because it’s a recurrence of the injury that kept him out for such a long time before.
“To suggest it would be anything other than three to four weeks I would think would be unbelievably optimistic.
“If you’re asking from the Irish point of view will he be fit and ready in 10 days’ time or whatever it is to go and join up with Ireland I would say that’s absolutely impossible
“But that will be up to the doctors to decide. Our doctors, the Irish docs, and if they say ‘you’re talking out of your hat, there’s nothing wrong with the lad’, no one would be happier than me.
“But I think that’s pie in the sky to be believing that.”
LYING on the pitch in the mud, face stinging from a wayward elbow, Dara O’Shea had been given a brutal wake-up call.
The Republic of Ireland defender was still a fledgling professional at West Brom when he had agreed to a loan move to non-league Hereford.
And after a couple of weeks it soon became clear that academy football was a stroll in the park compared to life in the Southern League Premier Division.
O’Shea, now 22, is in his breakthrough season at The Hawthorns, but he might not have reached the Premier League at all were it not for a couple of lessons handed down in the semi-professional game three years ago.
“It was an eye-opener,” he recalled. “Working with men and up against old, seasoned professionals in the later stages of their careers.
“It was only my second or third game and I remember the opposition manager, before kick-off, called his striker over, saying, ‘Look, he’s a young lad, get into him’.
“Five minutes later, I was defending a wide free-kick and the next thing, I got a swift elbow to the face. I couldn’t believe it. One minute, I was standing up. The next, I was on the floor.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m in with the big boys now’ and that was when I realised I had to toughen up, put my hard hat on and get stuck in – otherwise I’d be eaten alive.
“From then on I made it my mission to put in a tough tackle the first chance I got – to prove I wasn’t a pushover.”