Mick McCarthy will name Ireland's World Cup squad on Tuesday May 7th. The FIFA deadline is still a number of weeks away but the Irish manager is set to follow the example of a number of his managerial counterparts by informing his players and the world considerably ahead of time.

The 23-man squad will play against Sunderland in Niall Quinn¿s testimonial on May 14th and again against Nigeria two days later before flying off to Japan to acclimatise for the tournament proper.

McCarthy has repeatedly said that he would stick by the players who got Ireland to the finals and that looks like being the case for the most part.

However, there is a sneaky suspicion that the Barnsley boy may bring along a few later bloomers, like Colin Healy, who have impressed in recent friendlies.

Tuesday will reveal all.

a2zsoccer.com