Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has been dealt a massive blow ahead of the Nations League match against Scotland in Dublin tomorrow evening.
Kenny today revealed that his captain Seamus Coleman, the vastly-experienced Everton defender, and John Egan, the Sheffield United centre half, have both been ruled out of the Group B1 match at the Aviva Stadium.
Former Dunfermline manager Kenny is under pressure after his team lost their opening two games to Armenia away and Ukraine at home.
He is already without Matt Doherty, the Spurs right back who is out with a knee injury, and has now lost his skipper Coleman, who suffered a groin strain against Armenia on Saturday, and Egan, who injured his ankle against Ukraine on Wednesday night.
“Séamus Coleman has been ruled out,” said Kenny. “He’s obviously come in with the groin injury that he had at the end of the season so he’s been ruled out and has left the camp so it out of the games.
“John Egan has been ruled out as well with an ankle injury. We’ve one or two late fitness tests on one or two players but, hopefully, everyone else will be okay.“It was such an open game the other night. The physical data was extremely high, the demands on the players of both teams. It was such a stretched game and the demands of the game were huge on the players so we will definitely freshen up the team for tomorrow.”
Kenny has only won two of the 17 competitive matches he has taken charge of since being appointed back in 2020 – but he insisted he has no concerns over his own position going into the Scotland game. “I don’t feel pressure, only internal,” he said. “I’m disappointed we’ve not got points on the board and there is professional pride.
“Certainly I feel disappointed with that, that we don’t have points on the board. I thought in the game against Ukraine, I felt every player gave absolutely everything of themselves, every ounce of themselves.
“Okay, we could have maybe made better opportunities in the final third when we broke 3 v 3 a few times or 4 v 4 and we didn’t quite get the right pass or we couldn’t create the chances that we wanted to create.
“But we went through the game without conceding one chance, apart from right at the death in the 95th minute on the counter. Ukraine are a good team but they were restricted to long-range efforts.
“We just have to get ourselves ready. There’s changes in the team. Players who are regulars, Seamus Coleman, John Egan, Matt Doherty are missing tomorrow against Scotland. There are opportunities for other players to come in and make their claim.
“The atmosphere in the team is always good, there’s a good attitude, but we are disappointed we haven’t got any points. We have lost two games without hardly conceding a chance in the two games.
“We are going into the game against Scotland tomorrow with a home crowd, it will be a passionate home crowd. Scotland have been on a great run of results apart from their game against Ukraine. They have a strong squad.
“From our point of view it’s a full house and we want to go and try to win the game. We are at home with a passionate crowd, we want to be positive in our approach and we just want to get better in the final third than we have been.”
