DOUBTS REMAIN OVER the fitness of James McCarthy ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Moldova.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman explained on Monday that McCarthy and fellow Ireland international Darron Gibson would be out of action for roughly three weeks after both players had operations to correct respective groin injuries, meaning that they face a race against time to regain fitness for October’s Group D qualification games.
“He (Gibson) had a similar operation to James McCarthy. He’ll be out around three weeks or four weeks to recover from that surgery and he’s doing well,” Koeman told the club’s official website.
“It’s always frustrating for footballer players to get injuries, or get an operation or surgery, because you lose some time and training.”
Koeman added: “It’s always difficult, but it’s not a long-term injury and hopefully he and James will be back with in the team and training as soon as possible.”
Martin O’Neill is set to name his Ireland squad for the games against Georgia and Moldova on Friday, and McCarthy’s lay-off, in particular, will come as a blow to the Boys in Green boss.
The 25-year-old, who has featured just twice for the Toffees this season, was included in the last Ireland squad, but departed the camp prior to Robbie Keane’s send-off against Oman in order to receive treatment on his injury.
He missed the opening World Cup qualifier against Serbia as a result, which finished 2-2 in Belgrade.
Gibson, meanwhile, has made just 17 appearances for Everton over the course of the last three seasons and the latest set-back adds to his frustration.
The Derry native penned a new two-year contract with the club ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, but injury has thus far prevented him from featuring under new boss Koeman.
Ireland face Georgia in Dublin on October 6 before taking on Moldova away on 9 October.
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Another fella who wasted his talent. Similarly to anthony stokes. Also stephen ireland, those 3 should have backboned the irish team for the last 10 years.
@Gareth Ward: not sure on Stokes i think he might have been found out early in his career that he was below average but the other 2 ya
@Wheresmyjumper: Maybe ya, but he had the talent as a young lad and just didn’t work hard enough at it! The other 2 though, imagine if they were our midfield partnership for the last 12 years!
@Gareth Ward:
We achieved more with wheels in midfield than we ever could of with Gibson or Ireland, Glenn is a pro who wanted to play . Gibson never gave it his all to any team he played for. How Stephen Ireland was treated by both Man City and the FAI is a totally different story . Stephen Ireland could of achieved a lot more in the game and I’ve a lot of sympathy for him and his story . Gibson however I wouldn’t trust him to hand out the jerseys and has never looked like a player who cared about anything except for a gargle.
@Shane Lad: Ya Whelan has been grand like when we’ve had no one else. But what im saying is if Gibson had delivered on his potential he would have been so much better than Whelan
@Gareth Ward:”grand when we had no one else” that’s harsh, whelan a fantastic pro put a few them boys to shame, it’s not as if we never had any other options in midfeild either and we had throw poor Glenn there he was there on merit.
@Gareth Ward: Harsh on Warren. He’s only 21.
@Wheresmyjumper: He wasn’t found out, he was fond of the drink which most young Irish players were back then.
A tented lad on his day but wasted his career I’m afraid
We achieved more with wheels in midfield over the last few years than we ever would of with Ireland or Gibson. Glenn is a pro who wants to play . I’ve a lot of sympathy for Stephen Ireland and his story. The way he was treated by city and the FAI was disgusting and he could of achieved a lot more in the game . As for Gibson, he’s never given his all to any team he’s been in because he doesn’t care.
@Shane Lad: I would say taking everything Stephen Ireland says as gospel truth is very dangerous. There’s a reason his career went the way it did after packing in Ireland and then City- perceived “disgusting” treatment with both can’t have applied.
@Shane Lad: “The way he was treated by city and the FAI was disgusting ”
Yes because what happened with Stephen Ireland was everyone elses fault but him, pull the other one Shane.