Arter and Keane emerge as O'Neill's main injury worries

Martin O’Neill spoke to the assembled media on Monday in Turner’s Cross ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s clash against Belarus.  It will be a game which will mark the first time the National side has played another team in Cork since their encounter with Spain in 1985.

The entire surroundings has got a huge facelift in recent weeks with O’Neill describing the pitch as “fantastic, in great order and there should be a great atmosphere here tomorrow.”

As usual, the talk about Robbie Keane’s fitness dominated proceedings since he injured it last Saturday morning doing some light training following the 1-1 draw with the Netherlands on Friday night in the Aviva. He’s being monitored very closely by the management team ahead of the deadline for naming squads tomorrow night meaning he won’t be involved in proceedings at the Cross despite taking an injection this morning.

“We did some training Saturday morning and he felt his calf just at the end of training so we’ll take it on a daily basis.

“He won’t play tomorrow night at the game as we won’t risk him but as he says himself is a quick healer so we’ll see how it goes.”

When asked if it was a potential concern to name a player carrying a knock in the final 23 man squad tomorrow night, O’Neill responded with: “You don’t mind taking a risk with one or two but you don’t want to take a risk where you have a whole host of players going with concerns. But he is the captain, secondly he has being playing regularly since he picked up the injury six or seven weeks ago and he’s also a quick healer so I’m hoping that the risk is not that great.”

Robbie Keane isn’t the only walking wounded in the camp with Everton’s James McCarthy still a doubt, but he trained on his own in front of the watching media and to all those watching he appeared to be moving fine. O’Neill gave the update to the press.

“James did a little bit on his own with our fitness man Dan today. Reports are that he is feeling a little bit better than the way he was before but again its one of those things that you’ll have to look at on a daily basis but there seems to be optimism.”

As the media arrived into the ground, Bournemouth’s Harry Arter was observed jogging down the tunnel and it was only afterwards that O’Neill revealed that Arter was now an injury doubt for tomorrow’s game and possibly the Euro’s squad as a result.

“Harry Arter came off with a thigh injury so we’ll get him a scan shortly and we’ll see what the doctor says.”

Much to the disappointment of many Cork City fans who will be in attendance at the game tomorrow, Kevin Doyle will not be making an appearance as owing to fitness concerns while with Daryl Murphy the Derry man wants to give the Ipswich Town man game time in order to decide who travels to France in June.

“Kevin Doyle hasn’t arrived and he is on standby and at least he got the game on the weekend. Daryl Murphy will play tomorrow as he hasn’t got game time in a while.

“We’ll look and we will see about the two of them.”