ROBERTO MARTINEZ HAS raised doubts about the fitness of James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman for Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifiers.
The Everton duo have been left out of the squad for tonight’s Europa League trip to FC Krasnodar and could also miss Sunday’s game against Manchester United.
McCarthy is suffering from fatigue in his quad while Coleman is recovering from a minor soft tissue injury.
The news will come as a concern to Martin O’Neill who convenes his squad in Malahide next Tuesday. Ireland host Gibraltar in the Aviva Stadium on 11 October before flying out to face Germany in Gelsenkirchen three days later.
Martinez said: “James and Sylvain [Distin] are not in the squad but they are not too far away from being fully fit.
“I would say there is a question mark over the weekend but it is not going to be any later than after the international break.
“James has got a tightening of his quad. He has played a lot of football and he is feeling a bit fatigued. It’s not a real injury and I am not concerned by that.
“Seamus Coleman had concussion against Wolfsburg but then he suffered a little bit of a soft tissue problem. I don’t think it will be too long [before he is fully fit].
“The international break should clear those injuries.”
I think everyone knows the reason and it’s not football! Hodgson is just the FA’s puppet..
Should have been micah Richards. There is only a debate about Rio Ferdinand because of the racism row.
Rio Ferdinand is more that capable of doing a job for England, instead, Martin Kelly gets a call up. Im pretty happy though, the less united players that play in euro 2012 the better.