Roy Keane's involvement was not the only good news to come out of today's training session by the Irish team at Baldonnel as winger Kevin Kilbane was able to train fully for the first time on his damaged ankle. Kilbane would bring much-needed balance and width to McCarthy's team if he is included in the line-up for Saturday's World Cup 2002 play-off against Iran and the Irish boss will be eagerly awaiting confirmation that neither Keane nor Kilbane's injuries have reacted badly to today's training.
Kilbane himself was thrilled to be back training again after a frustrating few weeks. "I'm very pleased to have got a full training session under my belt. I was a little bit tentative at first just until I got going but then everything went okay and there's been no problems at all," said the Sunderland winger.
Kilbane picked up his ankle injury three weeks ago while lining out for Sunderland against Manchester United in the Premiership but the winger admitted Saturday's play-off first leg was the ideal incentive to regain full fitness as quickly as possible.
"It was on my mind whether or not I would be available to play in this game and it was probably at the back of my mind that I needed to be fit for this and that's what I've done. In all honesty, I've done quite a bit over the last 10 days or so because it was looking very doubtful last week so I really had to prove my fitness and ensure I was ready for it," he explained.
Like his manager and the rest of the Irish squad, Kilbane will not underestimate the Iranian challenge. "I must admit I really don't know too much about the Iranian players but I have watched a bit on television on the Asian football channel. I watched some of the play-off game between Iran and the UAE so you get a drift of what they're about. They've got skilful talented players there and they've got players who can create chances and score goals so it will be difficult for us," he added.
The Irish squad are due to have a final workout at Lansdowne Road in the morning and manager Mick McCarthy may name his team after that.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
