Relaxed Ireland confident on Given

Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given is ready to ‘play tonight’ if required, according to goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly.

Fears grew over the fitness of the 36-year-old goalkeeper when he played just 45 minutes of Ireland’s 0-0 draw with Hungary in Budapest on Monday night.

The Aston Villa player pulled off two top class saves in the first half of the friendly, but there were doubts over whether his half-time substitution was a planned switch or enforced by a recurrence of his knee injury.

Given, Ireland’s most capped player of all time with 122 caps, sat out the team’s open training session on Monday in Gdynia’s Municipal Stadium, where almost 14,000 enthusiastic locals came to watch.

But Kelly insists he had to stop Given from taking part in training.

“Shay is fine,” Kelly said.

“We had the open day yesterday in front of a really fantastic crowd, as you saw, and it’s just part of his rest and recuperation.

“He played the 45 minutes the night before.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we were playing head tennis over in the corner and having a bit of fun with the crowd, and he was absolutely busting to get involved... it was relaxing.

“Anybody who has seen Shay over the 122 caps will know his determination to play for Ireland, that’s not going to go away.”