Keeping them on their toes
season as first choice for Ireland, playing the four June Nations League matches having received the nod for the March friendlies with Belgium and Lithuania.
Bazunu was ruled out of that March double-header through illness but had started all five World
Cup qualifiers between September and November with Kelleher preferred for the home friendly win over Qatar in October.
Bazunu also missed three of the June matches with back and rib injuries while Travers bided his time on the bench for eight of the 13-game schedule but illness had also affected him during the autumn.
At club level, Jurgen Klopp’s belief in the Corkman was reflected in his promotion last summer to Alisson’s back up at Liverpool and his refusal to consider allowing Kelleher to go on loan.
Travers excelled for Bournemouth in their promotion charge while Bazunu was outstanding on loan at Portsmouth from Manchester City.
Move
This earned Bazunu a €14m move to Southampton in June with the ex-Shamrock Rovers star battling to start the new campaign as first choice.
“It gives Gavin a strong opportunity and Mark also at Bournemouth. It’s interesting to see.”
Kenny expressed his surprise at Klopp’s claim that Liverpool were unhappy with the diagnosis of Kelleher’s hamstring injury when he was with Ireland in June.
“Caoimh felt something after the international game and everybody, the medical department there, told him it’s fine and will be good after a holiday,” said Klopp.
“He came back and first training, felt it again. We checked it and it was not good so I think Caoimh will be another two, three weeks and then he should be fine.
“It’s a serious hamstring injury and it will take longer.”
But Kenny rejected the German’s assessment.
“I did read the comment, it caught us by surprise I must say.
“If he had have been injured (in June), he would have been out of training or not training.”