Martin O’Neill clearly is not interested in giving anything away.
Earlier this week Roy Keane admitted that he saw no reason why Wes Hoolahan would not be able to start both play-off games against Bosnia, despite the matches coming within 72 hours of each other.
The Dubliner missed out on the starting XI in last month’s loss to Poland, just days after featuring for the full 90 minutes in the historic 1-0 win over Germany.
At the time O’Neill revealed that Hoolahan had come to him to say he felt he wasn’t fit enough to start the game in Warsaw, but he did come on as a second half substitute.
Most Irish fans are hopeful that the former League of Ireland player will be a key figure in both games this weekend but speaking tonight, O’Neill poured cold water on definitely including the Dubliner in both matches.
Instead, he told the assembled media that he would have to weigh up all the options surrounding his starting team for the game in Zenica,
“In terms of Wes Hoolahan playing two games, I think that’s things we have to discuss and think about and try and utilise our players, including Wes, as best as we possibly see them.”
“We’ve got these two games, and naturally they are very important for us as a nation and you don’t want to start pre-empting things that might occur and you have to take some things into consideration during the course of the two games.”
That sounds fairly hesitant on the part of the Irish manager to include his most creative player in both Bosnia and in Dublin to us.
