As Ireland prepare for their final game of the season with Friday night’s friendly against Canada in Montreal, manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has revealed that star striker Evan Ferguson is now a serious doubt for the opening four Nations League of the autumn.
The Brighton striker had his loan spell at Roma cut short by an ankle injury sustained against Stuttgart in January and has undergone surgery to resolve the issue.
But now the Irish Sun reports that Hallgrimsson has confirmed the damage is worse than first expected as he prepares to send out a new look team against the Canadians.
Speaking pre-match in Montreal, Hallgrimsson revealed: “I spoke to him last time two or three weeks ago, and it was more damage than the doctor thought in the beginning.
“So probably now he is fully fit sometime in September or October but you never know. Hopefully it will be sooner. But I think for him and everyone, it would be wise to take this slowly and just leave it in the past instead of trying to rush it.”
A group of Celtic supporters clubs have put their names to a statement urging the club not to appoint Robbie Keane as their next manager due to his previous time as boss at Maccab Tel Aviv in Israel.
The Green Brigade are amongst the groups to have signed the statement according to a report on the Sky Sports website.
Keane, currently in South Korea for a game with the Liverpool Legends, is favourite to be offered the role after constructive talks with owner Dermot Desmond at the start of the week.
The report states that the North Curve Celtic account on X has published a list of 67 groups that have apparently endorsed the statement.
The statement says: “Celtic supporters have a long and proud history of solidarity with the Palestinian people. For us, Robbie Keane’s decision to manage Maccabi Tel Aviv during the genocide in Gaza is impossible to ignore. We urge the Celtic board to listen to supporters’ concerns and reconsider this appointment.”
Katie McCabe will lead Ireland out against the Netherlands in the big World Cup qualifier at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Friday night but the interest in her move from Arsenal to Chelsea remains of huge interest.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference in Cork on Thursday, McCabe went into depth on the move across London as her contact at Arsenal came to an end.
“Having spent 10 or 11 years at a football club is really special,” McCabe told the media, including The42 website. “For me to be able to do that at a football club like Arsenal was amazing. I’ve got a lot of respect for every single person back at the club and all my teammates.
“I empathise a lot with the Arsenal fans at the minute. It’s not an easy thing to see a player that’s spent so long at a club going to a rival club. But at the same time, I need to put myself first.”
Andoni Iraola’s appointment as the new Liverpool manager was confirmed on Thursday when he signed a two-year contract to succeed Arne Slot in the Anfield hotseat.
The BBC quotes from a Liverpool statement confirming the news with Iraola stating: “Really excited, really excited. Because obviously you know about Liverpool, you know that it’s a big club, a massive club, one of the biggest in the world. I’m ready for the challenge.”
Chelsea and Cork fans are mourning the death of Bobby Tambling at the age of 84 following a long illness.
Still Chelsea’s second all-time record goalscorer behind Frank Lampard, Tambling settled in Crosshaven after ending his career with Cork Celtic and was well known across Leeside.
