Caoimhin Kelleher is out of the Republic of Ireland's upcoming European Championships qualifiers after suffering a nasty training ground collision that required 12 stitches in his leg.
Kelleher was set to start for Liverpool in their Europa League game against Union Saint-Gilloise at Anfield tonight, and would have been in Stephen Kenny's squad for the qualifiers against Greece and Gibraltar, which was named today.
However an untimely and unfortunate incident in Liverpool training on Tuesday has ruled the Corkman out of Liverpool's match, and deprived him of an opportunity to put pressure on Gavin Bazunu for the Ireland No 1 spot.
Speaking about Kelleher's absence, Kenny said: "We got the call. He got 12 stitches in a leg joint.
"Sometimes with stitches, if it's a calf, a thigh or a facial [injury] you can get over it, but you can't if it's on the joint. It just reopens all the time. It's just unfortunate for Caoimhin really."
On the day that James McClean announced he will retire from international duty at the end of this year, the Derryman failed to make Kenny's squad.
The manager suggested the excellent recent form of Celtic's Liam Scales was a factor in McClean's exclusion, but said the veteran will come in if there are any injuries before the Greeks come to town on Friday week.
"Obviously Liam Scales is actually in very good form at Celtic playing in the Champions League, and he's played a lot on the left side as well, and also, Ryan Manning has had some good form for Southampton recently," said Kenny, who managed McClean when he was a rising talent at Derry City.
"James has had a great career, he's had a terrific career and it's not beyond possibility I'll be calling him at the weekend after there's an injury and asking him to come back in and play. That is the reality sometimes when you name squads.
"Young Irish players can learn a lot from him, how he approached his career. Ireland was always at the forefront of his thoughts, it was always the pinnacle for him and it was always the most important thing, to play for his country. You had to respect that."
Kenny was in Glasgow to watch Scales impress for Celtic in their hearbreaking Champions League defeat to Lazio.
The former Shamrock Rovers and UCD man could start against Greece having enjoyed his spell for Celtic in the last six weeks. The absence of the injured John Egan means there's a void to fill on the left side of central defence, with Scales well equipped to step in.
"He's been in the [Ireland] squad a few times and not made a debut yet, so he's been a bit unfortunate," Kenny said of the 25-year-old.
"He did terrifically at Shamrock Rovers and had a very good season with Aberdeen [on loan from Celtic].
"Initially under Ange Postecoglou, he played actually two games in Europe at left-back that we watched recently, and he could certainly do that no problem. He'd a very good season with Aberdeen last year mainly playing as left of a back three, and now he's playing as a centre-half in a back two for Celtic and playing very well, so it's a credit to him."
Ireland were awful when they slumped to a 2-1 loss in Athens last June. It was a hugely damaging result in a campaign that's fizzled out, but Kenny remains relatively upbeat as he looks to earn two wins that might at least give him some chance of remaining as manager into 2024.
His contract lasts as long as Ireland have involvement in the Euro 2024 campaign, and the Boys in Green could still sneak into the play-offs via their UEFA Nations League standing - albeit they need a lot of results to fall for them.
Whether Kenny would stay on for those games if they materialised would be up for serious debate, but for now the manager is focusing on the Greece/Gibraltar double-header before the trip to the Netherlands in November.
"Greece are a fine team," he said. "The Holland/Greece game was probably an anomaly, Holland found themselves 3-0 up at half-time, but it wasn't a 3-0 game. It shows the importance of set pieces. Holland played very well in Amsterdam that night.
"Greece have had a good game with France and had a convincing win against Gibraltar. They are a good team and it's a game we have to make sure we are ready for. It’s an important game for us."
Watch the Sports Direct FAI Cup semi-finals, Galway United v Bohemians (Saturday 2.30pm) and Cork City v St Patrick's Athletic (Sunday 2.30pm) on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player and follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app
