O'Shea offers hope of Ferguson fitness

The Republic of Ireland management are going to have to play a waiting game to see whether Evan Ferguson will be available for the final World Cup qualifier against Hungary in Budapest next week.

The Roma striker has already been ruled out of Thursday's penultimate clash with Portugal through injury, however, hope remains that the Meath youngster will prove his fitness to be involved in the second game of the November international window.

Manager Heimir Hallgrimsson had offered optimism at last week’s squad announcement, including the front man despite the injury issues, however, confirmation came on Monday morning that Ferguson had been replaced by Johnny Kenny.

The Ireland squad started the international week in Dublin earlier today with a training session for the assembled squad, which varied in levels of intensity as a result of weekend games with their clubs.

And following the session, assistant head coach John O'Shea offered a squad update at the scheduled press conference.

"Let's wait and see," said O’Shea, when asked for the latest on the Ferguson situation. "We were hopeful for both games, but the Portugal one was going to come around too quick.

"We were fully aware it was going to be a close call, and the boss spoke about it, in terms of readying the squad and what was going to be needed if, obviously, Evan didn't make it.

"So Johnny's coming in, full of confidence on the back of that. But let's wait and see, possibilities."

Kenny comes into the squad in a rich vein of form for Celtic, scoring four goals in recent weeks, however, he may have to bide his time when it comes to getting minutes on the pitch.

Hallgrimsson reasoned last week that he was behind Troy Parrott and Adam Idah, as well as Ferguson, in the pecking order, so should he make an appearance against either Portugal or Hungary, it would likely be a cameo from the bench.

"Martin [O’Neill] has a great track record of giving that younger player, young hungry player a chance, and obviously, if Johnny's doing everything right in training, and getting the chance to show it in a game, it’s brilliant to see. He's in a good bit of form."

The Ireland team have struggled for consistency throughout the campaign, with real damage done in Yerevan, however, they have bounced back somewhat with a really creditable performance in Lisbon, while beating Armenia in the return game in Dublin.

And now O’Shea is imploring his side to put pressure on themselves to perform, once again, in this vital home clash against the highly talented Portugal side as Ireland will most likely need a positive result to keep the World Cup dream alive heading into that final game against Hungary next Sunday.

"First and foremost, it's a home game for us, and we know the game against them last month was gut-wrenching in a sense, to lose it the way we did in the end.

"But there's a good platform to build on that, and you're flipping it to the Aviva, our fans, our noise behind it to maybe influence.

"And put more pressure on ourselves, first and foremost, on everyone to perform at home, but also on making sure we're in control of situations that Portugal were in control of lots of situations in their home venue too."

"We managed to obviously stop him in the last game," added O’Shea, when the obligatory Cristiano Ronaldo question was asked.

"Like I mentioned before, they have plenty of threats in the team and he got, I think it was that shot from outside the box. But otherwise, I thought the boys, the team as a unit, and the defence in particular, done brilliantly in the duels and the crosses that we had to deal with.

"So it'll be a similar situation again. We have to be tight, we have to be aggressive and we have to be winning, clearing crosses, getting the usual stuff.

"What will go into a big Irish victory is you have to defend crosses, you have to defend your box. It's not just defenders, it's the midfield and attack, everyone connected and making sure the units are together and strong.

"It's a massive game. It's a World Cup qualification game at home against a top seed.

"It's why we do it. It's why you're in football for these scenarios, to be facing a good opposition, but also to know you can be part of a fantastic victory for your country. So that's the key bit behind it and it's why we do it, it's why we love it."

As mentioned, Monday’s training session was far from a full-blooded affair, however, O’Shea did reveal that they had a chance to take a good look at new recruit Kevin O’Toole, who was tasked with taking on the wing wizardry of Mikey Johnson.

"We've been aware of Kevin for a good while now, like the manager spoke about in terms of the passport situation, but he had a good introduction from everyone," said O’Shea.

"Obviously, the boys who played in the games yesterday were just on recoveries and Kevin, he got a good flavour of it, and we managed to get him a few 1v1s with Mikey Johnson.

"He had a good introduction, and Mikey gave him a good test."

Watch Republic of Ireland v Portugal in World Cup qualifying on Thursday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.

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