Stephen Kenny could back Seamus Coleman to step into Matt Doherty's role for Ireland if the Tottenham star is out for the June internationals.
Both Coleman and Doherty have shown grit to come back from tough stations recently at club level.
Coleman may take on Doherty's marauding wing-back role if the Nations League starts in June - the Tottenham man suffered a knee ligament injury on Saturday that will rule him out for 10-12 weeks.
Coleman was heavily criticised by Jamie Carragher among others for his performance in Everton's 5-0 thrashing by Doherty's Spurs last month.
But the Toffees skipper shrugged off a recent illness and was crucial to his relegation-threatened side's victory against Manchester United last weekend.
"To have a bad game that was live on TV, he obviously got a lot of criticism," said Kenny.
"People then believed that's how he's been playing for six or eight weeks when he hadn't, he'd actually been playing very well up to that.
"So he got criticism but the issue with Seamus is not that he's not at the level - he is at the level, it's just sometimes he's put himself out there when he's not been 100%, putting the team first.
"He's not one to speak up, it's 'if you want me out there and the physio says I'm right, I'll play'. He's come back very quickly from injury and probably when he wasn't right.
"And I've seen him in some matches when he knew he wasn't (right), he's so selfless that way.
"When he's fully fit as he was the other day, just coming back off the illness wouldn't have been easy for him.
"I thought he played really well against Belgium on the right of the back three.
"We left him out of the second game with a view to looking after him a bit, to be honest with you, to say, 'right, we're not going to force you to play twice in three days, you've had previous hamstring injuries and have a tough League programme coming up'."
Kenny is concerned that, with less than eight weeks to go to the June window, there could be defensive holes to patch up.
Andrew Omobamidele - who the Ireland boss says Norwich think so highly of that he is in the bracket of best player to come through at Carrow Road - is out with a stress fracture in his back.
Enda Stevens has returned to action with Sheffield United but Dara O'Shea isn't playing for West Brom at present.
Shane Duffy is due back from a slight thigh strain and while James McClean (knee) has an outside chance of making it, Doherty is expected to be absent.
Recently Doherty revealed his humiliation during Jose Mourinho's Spurs reign when he was told to stay on the team bus when he wasn't in the matchday squad against Aston Villa.
But he has been a key figure for Antonio Conte as the club fired back into the Champions League places.
"A lot of people had reservations about Matt, but I didn't," insisted Kenny.
"He's a real quality player. It's not come easy for Matt, he has come through League One, was in Scotland. He has had to earn it.
"Definitely, he’s shown a bit of character. One or two managers, he wasn’t part of the plans - they spent massive money, a big fee on the Brazilian right back Emerson Royal.
"They’ve got a lot of options. He’s done well to stay in and he’s an important option for us.
"But if we’ve lost him, we can’t dwell on it. Others have got to step up now."
Stephen Kenny was speaking at a media event at the Showgrounds in Sligo to promote the LOI Show on LOITV. The LOI Show airs weekly for free on www.loitv.ie (registration only required) with a review of all of the weekend’s action from across the SSE Airtricity Premier Division, First Division and Women’s National League. The LOI Show features every goal, key highlights and analysis from a panel of experts including Gavin Peers, Alan Keane, Alanna Cunnane, Declan ‘Fabio’ O’Brien, Conan Byrne, Gary Rogers and many more.
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