John Egan is out of the Republic of Ireland's upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Greece and Gibraltar.
Egan was taken off early in the second half of Sheffield United’s 2-0 loss at West Ham on Saturday with a leg injury.
The centre-half was assessed by his club, with the Blades initially hopeful the damage was not too serious. However it’s proven bad enough for Egan to be ruled out of the Aviva Stadium clash with the Greeks on Friday week and subsequent trip to Gibraltar the following Monday.
Callum O’Dowda will also not be included int he squad to be named Thursday as he continues to recover from an adductor issue.
With Seamus Coleman still sidelined, and Andrew Omobamidele struggling to get minutes at Nottingham Forest, the uncapped Liam Scales could get a golden opportunity to step into the fray.
Stephen Kenny will attend Celtic's Champions League clash with Lazio in Glasgow tonight. Scales has been in excellent form for the Scottish giants recently, picking up the player of the match award in last month’s victory over Rangers at Ibrox.
Winger Mikey Johnston will also be part of Brendan Rodgers' Hoops squad. He’s back at Celtic having spent last season on loan at Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal.
Both Scales and Johnston are expected to be in Kenny's panel, which will be named on Thursday.
Evan Ferguson will make a welcome return to the setup after he missed the September losses to France and the Netherlands due to a knee injury. Ferguson played in Brighton and Hove Albion's disastrous 6-1 defeat to Aston Villa last weekend.
There are huge question marks over Kenny's future after the last international window yielded zero points. Ireland are fourth in a five-team Group B with three games to go. Their only win in five games to date came against Gibraltar.
In the wake of the loss to the Dutch in Dublin, FAI CEO Jonathan Hill said Kenny will remain in charge for the final three games of the qualifying campaign and the international friendly against New Zealand in November, with the Dubliner's future set to be discussed at a review meeting after those games.
Hill would not, however, confirm that Kenny would be in charge if Ireland were to reach the play-offs, via their Nations League ranking, reiterating that a review would take place following the November window.
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