Brian Kerr, the Republic of Ireland coach, faces an anxious 48 hours after his country's 2-1 comeback win over Australia at Lansdowne Road last night.
Kerr saw his star striker, Robbie Keane, depart the field on a stretcher in the 45th minute and was also forced into the early withdrawal of Matt Holland. With the crucial European Championship qualifying double-header against Russia and Switzerland coming up next month Kerr can ill afford to do without such quality.
However, although both players are believed to have picked up ankle ligament damage the early indications are that they are not particularly serious problems.
Kerr said: ''Robbie twisted his right ankle and fell just after having a shot. He is quite sore at the moment but we won't know how serious it is for a couple of days. Matt Holland has a slight twist of his ankle and felt sore and I took him off immediately.''
Kerr paid particular tribute to Hibs' unwanted goalkeeper, Nick Colgan, who produced a vital save from Mark Viduka to keep his side in the match. ''Nick was nervous about it because he hadn't got much experience up to now but I'm delighted for him. The ball fell handily for Viduka and it was a crucial save. It gave everyone encouragement and momentum.''
Kerr has plenty to mull over as he prepares his squad for the forthcoming tests and he was particularly delighted with his side's fighting spirit. ''We've used a lot of players and given them a match under their belts which they needed badly,'' he added. ''The fact that we were behind and came back to win was good. It is the first time we've been behind recently so it shows we can up our game.''
The Australia manager, Frank Farina, had good news over the omission of Harry Kewell after the Liverpool player suffered a recurrence of his long-standing Achilles injury this week.
Kewell flew home after checks by his team doctor and physio yesterday but Farina said: ''If he had had another day he would most probably have been okay but it's a big risk and we don't really want to take that with a player of his calibre.
Farina added: ''When you see their goalkeeper getting man of the match it shows you we are doing something right and I thought he made a couple of crucial saves.''
Match report, Page 37
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