James McClean is one player who is guaranteed a seat on the plane to France but whose starting place is far from a foregone conclusion.
But the West Brom winger will have the chance to prove his versatility in one of the final friendlies ahead of Euro 2016, after manager Martin O’Neill has suggested that McClean may be the answer to the question about how he will survive with such a scarcity of options up front.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s friendly with Slovakia, O’Neill has only one fit out-and-out striker at his disposal in Shane Long.
Injuries to Kevin Doyle, Daryl Murphy, Jon Walters and Robbie Keane have even led to the likes of Leon Best throwing his hat in the ring for a shot at a call-up.
But O’Neill maintains that he will not be bringing any new faces into the fold for the Aviva clash and hinted at the prospect of playing McClean in a more advanced role.
“I’m not going to bring anyone in at this late notice,” O’Neill said in Monday’s press conference.
“We can adjust things. James McClean has played up front before, I’ve seen him play for Wigan there where he has done exceptionally well. So I think we can change things around.
“It’s been a bit of a disruption. For a start, I wanted Kevin Doyle to play at least for an hour if not the whole game. It was an opportunity for him and he started the game quite well but was unfortunate to get injured.
“I was thinking that Robbie Keane would be involved at some stage in one or two games and I really thought that Walters would be fit too. It’s been a bit of a disruption but these things happen.”
