Trapattoni names initial squad for Bulgaria & Italy

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Giovanni Trapattoni has named an initial 26-man squad for the forthcoming World Cup Group 8 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Italy.

The panel will later be whittled down to 23 ahead of the matches against Bulgaria (home) on March 28th and Italy (away) on April 1st.

Included in the squad is Celtic defender Darren O'Dea who yesterday scored in his club's League Cup final victory over arch-rivals Rangers. O'Dea is the only uncapped player in the squad.

The Republic of Ireland interim squad in full is:

Shay Given, Dean Kiely, Kieren Westwood, Alex Bruce, Damien Delaney, John O'Shea, Kevin Foley, Paul McShane, Richard Dunne, Stephen Kelly, Stephen Finnan, Kevin Kilbane, Darren O'Dea, Aiden McGeady, Damien Duff, Darron Gibson, Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Liam Miller, Stephen Hunt, Andy Keogh, Caleb Folan, Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane, Shane Long and Noel Hunt.