News

Robbie Keane and Marc Wilson are back in the Irish squad for the double header with Kazakhstan and Oman, but Wes Hoolahan and Stephen Hunt miss out.

By Declan Whooley

Giovanni Trapattoni announced the return of Keane to the fold on the same day that Damien Duff announced his farewell to international football.

Marc Wilson is also welcomed back after overcoming pro-dromal symptoms of a viral infection that kept him out of the Serbia match.

An achilles injury keeps Wes Hoolahan out of the squad, though he would be touch-and-go in a squad with just 23 players. Richard Dunne and Paul Green had already been ruled out of the squad.

Stephen Hunt is the biggest omission from the squad, and the Waterford man is having a tough time of it this season.

His international career has generally been in fits and starts, but he now finds himself on the fringes of Wolves set-up also. Teenager Anthony Forde from Limerick has edged ahead of the industrious Hunt at Moulineux, and Hunt will have work to do to force himself back into Trapattoni’s plans.

Ireland squad: Westwood, Forde, Randolph, Wilson, O’Shea, St Ledger, O’Dea, Ward, Kelly, McShane, Gibson, McCarthy, Coleman, O’Brien, Whelan, McGeady, Keogh, McClean, Keane, Doyle, Long, Cox, Walters