Callum O'Dowda has emerged as a major doubt for the Republic of Ireland’s crucial Euro 2024 qualifier against France on Monday night at the Aviva Stadium.
The Cardiff City utility player has established himself at the top of the pecking order to play the left wing-back role for the imminent campaign, however, O’Dowda picked up an injury in Wednesday night’s 3-2 victory over Latvia.
O’Dowda was on the scoresheet in the friendly, bagging his first international goal in the process, but it looks now as though he is in a race against time to prove his fitness for the arrival of the World Cup finalists.
So much so, in fact, that manager Stephen Kenny has drafted Robbie Brady into the squad ahead of the visit of Didier Deschamps' side, and should O’Dowda miss out, it will likely open the door for James McClean to return to that familiar role on the left side of the defence, with an eye on attack.
The doubt over O’Dowda has added to the other defensive dilemma for the manager, as was noted during the week, with Seamus Coleman also struggling to prove his match fitness for the game.
"Callum O'Dowda has picked up a groin strain, so Robbie Brady joined the squad last night," said Kenny, speaking at the pre-match press conference.
"No, he is not ruled out," added Kenny, when asked about the fitness of Coleman, who did not feature in the midweek match with Latvia. We will have to see how today goes. We train today.
"I wouldn't like to get drawn into percentages, but certainly Seamus is a very good player and for footballing reasons, he merits his place in the team, because he has been playing very well for Everton and had an injury free run and been able to train regularly over the last number of months.
"He is the captain of course, but we'll have to see on that."
On a more positive note, the manager gave striker Adam Idah the green light to feature in tomorrow’s qualifier, as the Norwich City forward has been a concern throughout the week at the team’s Dublin base.
"Adam Idah is fully fit, he is ok, he is absolutely fully fit and ready to go.
"He comes into our plans. He trained well yesterday, and he has been playing consistently for Norwich every week, so he comes back into the squad."
The manager had the benefit of being able to study the group’s top two seeds in action against each other on Friday night, and while he was not surprised by the quality that France showed, he was fairly taken aback to see the group’s top seed, the Netherlands, suffering such a heavy defeat, which may offer confidence going further in the group beyond Monday’s game.
"They were very good," said Kenny, when asked about France’s 4-0 victory in Paris. "Obviously we have seen a lot of France. They have been the best team in the world over the last eight years, getting to two World Cup finals.
"It was an impressive performance, very rare a number one seed with world class players as Holland are, get taken apart like that and defeated convincingly. That's very rare. It was interesting to see."
Despite the convincing victory, Kenny refuted the notion that his team would change tact and offer a more conservative approach to the game, which he felt would undo a lot of the good work that his side has done over the past two years.
Temptation to set up conservatively?
"No absolutely not," said Kenny, when asked was he tempted to change tactics against such formidable opposition.
"We've been working on a way of playing for the last two years. We're very, very comfortable in possession, as comfortable as any team in Europe now as possession.
"Why would we change now?
"Why would we take a step back now?
"This is the time that the team needs to show conviction, when the lights come on in the Aviva and the atmosphere is rocking as it will ever be and as electric as it will ever be.
"And France, one of the best teams in the world coming at us, do we just suddenly change and not have to courage to do that? And just accept a slow death? Definitely not.
"I think we'll show, and we'll need to show, fire and ice. We need to show fire, we need to have that level of tenacity in our play and aggression in our play, but also have composure in possession and have that level of calm in our play in possession.
"It's trying to combine the two. It's not easy, not easy against the best team in the world who are in formidable form as we saw the other night but that's the way we will definitely approach it."
And while he is well aware of the challenge that presents itself at the Aviva tomorrow night, Kenny feels that his team have the capability to hurt the visitors, based on the fact that his side have shown that they have goals in the team.
Kenny also expects the crowd to play a vital role in what he sees as a great occasion for Irish football with the arrival of such a marquee side at Lansdowne Road.
"We've analysed France and it was a very good performance from them the other night, of course we've learned from the game the other night, there's a lot to consider with that performance.
"I've seen it with my own eyes anyway, I've seen them live a few times. I'm well aware of their strengths and we'll take that all of that into account.
"That's not an easy challenge," added Kenny, when asked how can his team hurt France. "It's a tough challenge. Apart from their attacking strengths France are very good defensively.
"We feel we've got goals in the team, and we have the capacity to score goals, we've shown that. That's a big challenge for us, to penetrate France because they are very compact, the midfield players screening the back four are good defenders. That'll be a big challenge we have to overcome.
"It is a special night and there is a great tradition with Ireland and France over the years. The players can take inspiration from that.
"We have been building this team for the last two years and I feel the young players who came into the team have now become leaders themselves in the team.
"This is the evolution of the growth of the team. We have seen it. We're looking forward to playing France. We respect their exceptional achievements, but we also find that exciting as well."
With marquee teams, come world class players and none more so than the newly appointed France captain and World Cup Golden Boot winner, Kylian Mbappe.
"I think we respect the talents that France have," said Kenny, when asked how he would handle Mbappe.
"I think Mbappe is obviously an exceptional player and we have to back ourselves and have conviction in the way we play.
"Ultimately, we will show the courage that is needed tomorrow night. But it would be naive not to have provisions.
"We are not naive enough to suggest that we don't have to pay attention to him because obviously he's an exceptional player, but they have a lot of exceptional players."
Watch Republic of Ireland v France in Euro 2024 qualifying on Monday from 7pm live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on 2fm's Game On
