Given knock?

[JimmyP]

From the FAI website:

Given and Holland miss training

Shay Given and Matt Holland were the only absentees from training when the Republic of Ireland squad met in Dublin on Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualification clash against Israel in Tel Aviv.

Given suffered a hip injury in training with Newcastle United last week and missed training while Holland remained in England after his wife suffered an accident needing hospital treatment.

Manager Brian Kerr said: “Matt Holland has been delayed but is expected to arrive on Wednesday after his wife had an accident and she underwent an operation today.”

“Shay Given didn’t train but is hoping to okay soon.”

[JimmyP]

The update:

Kerr receives Given boost

Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr is confident that goalkeeper Shay Given will recover from his hip injury in time to start Saturday’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv (Kick off 7:50 Irish time).

Given did not train on Tuesday or again on Wednesday morning as preparation for Saturday’s game continued, though Kerr revealed that a scan has showed little damage that only requires a few days left.

Kerr said: “He’s had a scan and has a very slight strain. There’s some slight bleeding which caused some concern last Saturday but nothing that a couple of days rest won’t fix.

“I expect him to be fine for Israel. I got a call on Saturday after the game from the physio at Newcastle to say that Shay had had a bit of problem.

“There was no problem on Saturday morning but he had felt a bit sore at half time. He had an injection then and played the second half.

“It was basically a call of reassurance. The scan was for reassurance, the medical staff felt there was nothing to worry about and Shay is happy now that it is not serious.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad trained as normal on Wednesday morning with the exception of Matt Holland who is expected in Dublin before Ireland depart for Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon.

[Baker]

On Newstalk106's Off The Ball show last night a reporter on the show (Cant remember his name, think he was from the Independent) said the story about Givens knock had just been hyped up because it was such a slow news day and that he will be fine for Saturday.

Hope he's right!!

[dr_peepee]

I wish I shared the comfort some of you have with Paddy Kenny. There's no doubt he's a good prospect, but you can't replace experience. I rather he had some more games and and away game in a potentialy hostile environment is no place for an inexperienced keeper. That's one of my gripes with Brian Kerrs policy for friendlies. Paddy Kenny should start in most of these.

And my two cents regarding Dean Keily is that while it annoys me when players who are still assetts to the squad retire I don't think he was ever given a fair crack at the Irish Keepers jersey. At the moment Shay's our undisputed number one, and rightly so. But there was a time there about 4/5 years ago (around the start of the quals for Japan) where on Club form alone Keily was the much better keeper where Kelly couldn't get off the bench and Given was loosing his place from time to time to Harper. At that point it should have been an even three way battle for the jersey. I don't think it ever was and we've lost a world class keeper because of it.

[tricky_colour]

Just been on Sky news that Man U are interested in signing Kiely.

[Stuttgart88]

Just been on Sky news that Man U are interested in signing Kiely.

Not before time. Arsenal should have gone for him years ago but he probably wasn't exotic enough for Wenger (or his goalkeeping advisors). Cech appears to be the clear no. 1 in the PL at the moment, but over the last few years Given, Kiely & Niemi have been the most consisent. Jumping threads a bit, but Maik Taylor is pretty handy IMO.

The story about Kiely being promised a game over Kelly, but then Kelly being picked because of scouts being there is true.

I still think Kiely would play for us if we had a crisis. I think Kerr's "the door is still open" remark was aimed at him. I watched the video of the Paris match and Kiely was on BBC's panel. He said he had been in touch with the lads all through the week. Little things like this suggest to me he'd help out. Just like Eriksson is rumoured to be prepared to ask Scholes to play in WC06 I think Kerr should think likewise about Kiely (IF it comes to it obviously...). Kenny could feel hard done by but we owe the likes of Colgan & Murphy nothing.

When Deano came on late in the Turkey play-off the first thing he had to do was take a really difficult high dropping ball mid-penatly box. He took it like he'd pick an apple from a tree. I think this was his first competitive game and I realised at that moment he was class.

[Stuttgart88]

Given trained today and is OK apparently. He sat out the last bit of the session.

[brine3]

Given is a great in one on ones and Kiely is a great commander of the box. Both are great shot stoppers.

Now if only we could combine the two of them into one keeper.