SOCCER:AS IF the Republic of Ireland management team didn't have enough on their plates heading into the first of their end-of-season games, against Northern Ireland tomorrow night, the list of absentees from the squad has been lengthened over the weekend by the loss, to injury, of Ciarán Clark and, to fatigue, of Celtic striker Anthony Stokes.

The news that Clark has withdrawn from the group in order to sort out a hamstring problem that has apparently now prompted complications in his back will have come as something of a surprise to the management given, after twice being withdrawn from the club’s match-day squad at the last minute in recent weeks, the young defender actually made the bench for Aston Villa as they beat Liverpool yesterday.

But the fact he will not be around even for the for European Championship game in Skopje next week is a blow too given it will add to the problems in defence with Richard Dunne already out due to suspension and Seán St Ledger facing an assessment by the medical staff when he arrives.

Cabeb Folan has also sent word that he won’t be travelling back from the United States due to a thigh strain although, given his record in these matters, that news can have caused very little surprise at all within the camp while the loss of Stokes seemed to have generated more bemusement than anything else.

The Dubliner was apparently sufficiently on top of the situation late last week to inform the FAI then that he would be too tired to participate in any of the four upcoming matches. That was before he had been declared fit for Celtic in Saturday’s Scottish Cup final, a game in which he played for 22 minutes.

The striker’s attitude has been questioned on a number of occasions before – he was left out of his club’s squad for a league game against Motherwell only last week due to a breach of discipline – but Marco Tardelli attempted to shrug off the matter yesterday, saying he did not know what the situation with Stokes is at present.

Still, the Italian couldn’t resist observing that during his own playing days his attitude had been that “for the national team, it’s impossible to be tired”. Tardelli added that times may have changed since then and insisted that given the relative lack of serious options available to them, Stokes would not be overlooked in future on the basis of his decision this time but it does seem the 22-year-old has managed to shoot himself in the foot again.

That suspicion was underlined when Tardelli seemed to contrast Stokes’ decision with that of Dunne’s who has said he will travel to Dublin for the Carling Nations Cup games despite not being eligible for the Macedonia game.

As it happens, though, the Italian couldn’t confirm whether Dunne will hang about for the trip to Liege immediately after Skopje with Ireland due to play Italy there on June 7th.

That may be viewed by Tardelli and Giovanni Trapattoni as an issue for another day given that in addition to Clark, Folan and Stokes, Kevin Doyle, Damien Duff and Keiren Westwood are all definitely out of all four games.

On top of that John O’Shea, Darron Gibson, Kevin Kilbane, Aiden McGeady and Shane Long remain unavailable until at least next Sunday, depending on which club games they are involved with.

More immediately, the Stoke City trio of Glenn Whelan, Jonathan Walters and Marc Wilson will only arrive into Dublin tomorrow, something Tardelli suggested would most likely limit their involvement in the Northern Ireland game to appearances over the course of the second half from the bench.

“It is war!” joked Trapattoni’s assistant as he reflected on the situation although there was some small consolation in the fact that there appeared not to be any new problems arising out of yesterday’s final programme of Premier League games and he remained generally upbeat, insisting that the absence of so many players would merely provide opportunities for others to impress.

“We will try some new players and the players who have rested during this week can start the first game,” he said. “There will be room for young players like (Séamus) Coleman, (Keith) Treacy and (Simon) Cox. We still have choices even if some of the players in the first half will not have experience in the national team. I think it will be a good team.”