This is bad, really bad.
First Rob Eliot is ruled out with a knee ligament problem and now it looks like Ireland’s player of the year Jon Walters is in a race to be fit for Euro 2016.
Philip Quinn of The Irish Daily Mail had an exclusive Thursday morning, which suggests Mark Hughes is going to drop a grenade on Martin O’Neill’s preparations at his press conference this afternoon.
“My understanding is that Hughes will confirm that Walters has a knee injury that’s more serious than previously thought,” said Quinn, speaking on Newstalk Breakfast.
Quinn said the recovery from cartilage surgery could take up to eight weeks, which would bring Walters right up to the tournament kick-off. He would most likely miss the final friendlies with Holland and Belarus.
“My understanding is that Hughes will confirm that Walters has a knee injury that’s more serious than previously thought,” said Quinn, who tried to give succour to Ireland fans.
“Walters loves playing, he’d play every day of the week if he could or if there was a match. He’d run through a brick wall for Stoke and for Ireland.
“I think he’ll be OK getting to the Euros starting gate. There will be a lack of matches there, but O’Neill will hope the issue will resolve itself quicker rather than later and he might get a game for Stoke before the end of the season.
“As it was a number of years ago, when Giovanni Trapattoni had a number of players who weren’t match fit so had to take a chance on them. O’Neill certainly won’t want to take a chance of Walters.”
Ireland without Walters in France would be maird.
