‘WE’LL BE FIT AND FIRING FOR SCOTS’

MARTIN O’NEILL says he has no doubts that his Republic of Ireland players will remain in peak condition for next month’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland. While the Premier League members of his squad don’t finish their season until next Sunday, some of those who ply their trade in the Championship will have gone six weeks without playing by the June 13 meeting with the Scots. A friendly with England has long been arranged to help with match sharpness and a behind-closeddoors game with Northern Ireland was recently set up at the behest of the North’s manager, Michael O’Neill. But the Ireland boss insists his players are too professional to end up out of shape citing the training regime of Reading’s Alex Pearce. ‘He’s had a few days away but he’s training again,’ said O’Neill. ‘He’ll start his programme next week and I think it’s getting back to the point I made a little bit earlier, that young boys now seem to want to take care of themselves more than perhaps we did.’ O’Neill revealed that physio Dan Horan is on call to travel to Britain should a group of players require assistance but is happy for them to adhere to their individual training programmes at their clubs. ‘I was asking Alex this, does he have a programme? Yes, he does have a programme; he’s been given this programme. ‘It’s general, in that he doesn’t have to specifically stay with it. He does his own work and that would be the case with most. ‘We have asked the players if they want, that we have the facilities here and Dan Horan would travel over, meet a group of them, do some work with them if they

want, that’s not out of the question but if the players are happy doing their own thing, they’ve got their own personal trainers as well, fine, and I have to rely on that,’ he added, O’Neill included Brentford midfielder Alan Judge and Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney in his 33-man squad for the England friendly and Scotland qualifier and, while they will be aiming to make a suitable first impression, he does not expect any of his squad to take their foot off the gas. ‘Absolutely. And I mentioned that this time last year when we did the long trip to America and in fairness almost to a man they were happy to this. ‘So they’ve gone to those lengths at the time to do those matches in America. ‘I think they’ll want to be up for it plus the fact that the games... they’re pretty decent matches to be involved in so you’d want to be at your best if you could be.’ O’Neill also confirmed he will take charge of a League of Ireland XI against an Irish League XI managed by Michael O’Neill to raise funds for former Derry City striker Mark Farren.