Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr is still waiting on three players as his side arrived in Dublin to begin preparations for Saturday's Euro 2004 qualification showdown with Russia at Lansdowne Road.
The squad trained at Malahide this afternoon but several players were missing through injury and three have yet to arrive in the capital
Mark Kinsella arrived late having played a reserve game for Aston Villa against Newcastle United on Monday evening while Lee Carsley, who tests his knee ligament injury in a reserve game tonight and O'Brien will join the squad tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, David Connolly (hamstring), Colin Healy (calf), Kenny Cunningham (thigh) and Gary Breen (neck) all sat the session out but all are expected to be fit come 4pm on Saturday.
With Tottenham striker Robbie Keane definitely ruled out, Kerr has a big decision to make in attack but he refused to give away too much.
"If Robbie had been here, we'd have had to decide who would partner him, but he's not so we'll have to look at the whole forward line," he said. "We've really got Clinton (Morrison), Alan (Lee), Gary (Doherty), David (Connolly) and Damien (Duff) who can play up front it's a decision we're going to have to make.
"There are other areas like that as well where we have lots of options that we need to look at.
"The defence has done very well for me but we have lots of options. Richard Dunne did very well against Norway and was man-of-the-match against Greece when Don (Givens) was in charge. Andy O'Brien is playing solidly at club level and Ian Harte came on against Australia and did very well."
But Kerr knows that he has more than his forward line to sort out. "We've also got to look at the midfield and we'll make up our minds during the training sessions," he said.
New Russia manager Giorgi Yartsev has decided to recall the old guard. Former boss Valery Gazzayev resigned following the Russians' 2-1 home defeat by Israel in August with the new man opting to recall Alexander Mostovoi and Vitor Onopko, but Kerr believes that his homework will mean his side are well prepared.
"They've made a few changes but they've included all but three of the players who beat us last year and drew with Switzerland," he said. "I've had them watched in every game and I watched the video of them against Israel last night.
"They battered them and had 20 shots in the game but still lost 2-1. They started the group beating us 4-2 and scoring eight goals in their opening two games and have also drawn with Switzerland when they played very well."