McGeady ruled out for Ireland
Aiden McGeady injured his knee against Bulgaria
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Tuesday, 31, Mar 2009 09:23
Celtic star Aiden McGeady will miss the Republic of Ireland's crucial World Cup qualifier against Italy after failing to recover from a knee injury.
The winger picked up the injury in the 1-1 draw against Bulgaria on Saturday and though McGeady travelled with the squad to Italy, he was always a doubt and failed a fitness test today.
Republic manager Giovanni Trapattoni will now have to do without the services of his two key wide men as Damien Duff has also been ruled out of the game in Bari due to a hamstring injury. Wolves forward Andy Keogh is expected to replace McGeady in the line-up.
Despite the loss of two key players, Ireland skipper Robbie Keane was still confident his team-mates could still come away with a positive result against the team who are two points ahead of them and top group eight.
"Ireland in the past have gone up against so called better teams but we've always seemed to do a lot better than we should over the years," said Keane.
"It's going to be a difficult game. But we have to be positive enough to come here and hope to get a good result because, as players, you go into every game and you want to win every game.
"But if we get something out of the game - as long as we don't lose, that's the most important thing."