Walters surprised at Doyle omission

The circumstance surrounding the omission of Kevin Doyle from the Ireland squad was the main talking point at the teams final training session on Irish soil prior to Friday’s game against Sweden.

In an interview with the Wolves website Doyle told of his disappointment at being dropped via text message by manager Giovanni Trapattoni.

Speaking to the assembled media at the teams training base in Malahide this morning Assistant manager Marco Tardelli hinted that this is not the end of the road for Doyle under the current management.

“We love Kevin Doyle like we love all players, but in this moment (it) is better for him to stay out and take another player, but we know he’s a good player for us and it’s possible that in the future he come back.”

Asked about the sensitivity of using the medium of text message to deliver the bad news Tardelli said, “If the boss called him you (the media) would say it is better for him to SMS, if the boss sent an SMS you would say it is better to call. I think all players deserve the same things and the boss cant call all players that have been left out.”

Fellow striker Jon Walters said the Doyle decision came as a bit of a shock for some members of the squad.

“I think quite a few of us were surprised he wasn’t involved because there are a lot of strikers here, probably 5,6,7 that can play in that position.”

The team finished training with an 11 on 11 game with those wearing the orange bibs being in pole position to start on Friday night. Among the bib wearing contingent were Paul Green, Robbie Brady, James McClean, Ciaran Clark and Shane Long.

One of those in opposition was Walters who recovered sufficiently from the ankle knock he received in training yesterday.

“I’ve had bad ankle injuries in the past, ruptured it and that pain was up there with them so I thought it was going to be worse then it was.”

If Walters gets some pitch time on Friday he will be coming up against Swedish and West Bromwich Albion centre half Jonas Olsson for the second time this week.

“He’s a good battler, we tend to have battles everytime we play and it was no different last weekend but we had a laugh about it after the game. He’s a great lad off the pitch but a bit of an animal on it.”

Four points would be a satisfactory result from the two games for the Stoke striker who believes the unpredictability of the group means its still all to play for.

“I think if someone was going to give you four points before the two games you’d probably take them and try to beat Sweden at home, but you know the group throws up a lot of surprises like it did in Kazakhstan away, we got a result there while other teams have found it difficult going there and getting a result.”