Last night Martin O’Neill showed his ruthless side as he named his 23 man squad for Euro 2016 in France.
A 2-1 defeat from Belarus in the final warm up was a sideshow to the guessing game over who would be in and which players would be left behind.
When David Forde replaced Shay Given with 20 minutes left to play it looked like the out of favour Millwall keeper was getting some game time ahead of France.
O’Neill however is impossible to predict with Forde, who started in the first four qualifiers, including a heroic display in the 1-1 draw away to Germany, later taken aside and informed by the manager that he had lost out to Kieran Westwood.
Explaining the process afterwards the former Celtic boss said: “That’s the way I’d like to have been told rather than told by text or something. It’s not easy obviously because someone is going to be disappointed and the minute you have more than 23 in your squad anyway players are going to be left out.
“David Forde kept us in the game in Germany and we got that great point which was hugely significant in our qualification. He’s been great around the place as well and that decision was very difficult because he’s been excellent.
“Robbie is happy enough and I think there is that ruling that if anyone is out through injury then you can call in replacements. I think that that’s the case.
“I believe that that’s the case but it’s not something that I want to play around with. I think that players are coming here and if you do carry one or two players in, at the minute we are carrying Robbie and James McCarthy, we probably can’t really afford a third one and that’s where Harry might be unfortunate.
“If he is going to be fit in say 10 days and Robbie or James don’t make it then he would be one in consideration. James did some work yesterday and he’s improving which is good news.
“Robbie didn’t do any work but we didn’t expect him to. Robbie’s very very hopeful anyway he’ll make it and should be ok. If not for the first game then for the matches after that. But who knows.”
Former Celts Given, Keane and Aiden McGeady are all in the squad with Given and Keane amazingly still involved 14 years after going to the 2002 World Cup with a combined cap total of 276 caps. O’Neill’s backroom staff includes Roy Keane, Steve Walford and Steve Guppy.
