By Ade O'Connor
August 19 2002

Once again, Mick McCarthy finds himself with an extremely depleted squad, after seven of his squad have been forced to pull out through injury. Shay Given and Gary Breen will also be unlikely to feature heavily in the game; they are both involved in a game on Monday night. The last time McCarthy was forced to field a patched-up team was against Greece in a friendly, when Ireland slipped to a 1-0 defeat. The night before the game, the Ireland boss only had 13 players at his disposal, with 3 of them being keepers.

Mick McCarthy had attempted to call in Sunderland’s Phil Babb, after 2 years out of the squad, but unfortunately for Babb, he sustained a back injury to add his name to the unavailable list. Thomas Butler has only once played for Ireland before, filling a centre back roll, however he may occupy the midfield against Finland as McCarthy uses a makeshift side.

The lengthy list of players made unavailable reads as follows:

Andy O`Brien - Shin
Steve Finnan - Ankle
Steven Reid - Ankle
Clinton Morrison - Groin
Richard Sadlier - Hip
Steven Carr - Hamstring
Phil Babb - Back

Jason McAteer will be handed the captains armband for the match, for his 50th game in the green colours. McAteer had to be persuaded to not retire from international football after the World Cup, as he believed he had little future with the squad, but McCarthy told him different.

It was thought that the Ireland supremo would name his permanent captain, ahead of the European Championship qualifying match in Moscow on September 7th, but McCarthy decided to reward McAteer for his years of service to the country.