An afternoon's sightseeing for the Republic of Ireland squad in Cyprus today may provide Mick McCarthy with an opportunity to have a quick word with his centre-halves, one of whom is set to receive bad news.

After yesterday's training session, the Republic of Ireland manager confirmed that he has made his decision regarding who will play in central defence in Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Nicosia. He has yet to tell his players, however.

Gary Doherty's chances of a start in defence are slim, so the main question appears to be whether McCarthy replaces Richard Dunne, the unlikely hero in Amsterdam and Portugal, with a fit-again Kenny Cunningham, whose heroics in a green jersey are now taken for granted.

"They all know that somebody is going to be disappointed, but I'll sit down and talk with them about it before I let anybody else know what I'm going to do," said McCarthy yesterday afternoon, after his squad's first full training session at their Limassol base.

With the visits to the group minnows from the last qualifying campaign - the scare in Malta and the far more damaging draw against Macedonia in Skopje a month later - still casting a slight shadow over preparations, McCarthy admitted that getting the pairing right is of crucial importance. However, he insists that the preparations for this game leaves a more experienced side in a far better position to hammer out the required result.

"When you look back on Malta, we were going into the game having beaten Yugoslavia and having played in Croatia in the previous week," he said. "There's a hell of a difference between that and coming out here for a few days of training before the game. I don't think the situations compare, although I'd have to say that Cyprus will be a better side than Malta."

McCarthy restated his belief that Holland and Portugal will beat the weakest three teams in the group, home and away, obliging Ireland to do the same. If that is to happen, he believes the Republic must develop Manchester United's well-documented knack for winning even when they don't play so well.

"The difficulty is that you still get those odd results in football. The time Bradford beat Liverpool, or Wycombe beat Leicester, things like that just aren't supposed to happen. But we're a more experienced team, so I'm confident about Saturday. The point is that there can't be any guarantees."

McCarthy then paid generous tribute to Alan Kelly, who he said could "comfortably" cope with the standard in the Premiership and Champions League if he was to complete the move to Manchester United that was touted the previous evening.

Within an hour, though, it was clear that the goalkeeper's loan move would not happen. Blackburn would not allow Kelly to move while John Filan is injured. Meanwhile, Manchester United - who never made direct contact with Kelly - signed Motherwell's eccentric veteran Andy Goram.

"I live on a farm at the moment," said Kelly, "and I see a lot of people around me right now whose lives are destroyed overnight. If nothing else, that helps to put things in perspective.

"Still, I would have to say that I'm disappointed that something hasn't happened for me over the past few months. Having come off the back of three World Cup qualifiers - and I felt I did reasonably well in them - it's hard when you realise that there's nobody who seems to think you would improve their squad.

"Blackburn are only supposed to want £400,000 and maybe there's some sort of doubt in people's mind about how I'd be affected by these new EU (transfer) regulations, being over 30, but really, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of money to me for an international goalkeeper."

Asked if he still thought another move might go through before today's transfer deadline, he sighed: "Well, it's Wednesday, I'm sitting here in Cyprus, and I wouldn't have thought that anything is going to happen. "Sometimes, though, when you look in the mirror, ask yourself all the questions and you're able to give the right answers - to say you did your part - then you just have to hold your hands up and concede that there's nothing much else you can do except hope for the best."

If the deadline does pass without a move, it will be a harsh blow for Kelly, who once before (at Sheffield United) hung around too long in order to fight for his place when a move might have been an easier option.

Despite consistently solid performances for his country, particularly in the first three games of this campaign, the 32-yearold has received just one offer - from third division Cardiff City - since asking Rovers for a transfer.

"I'm the eternal optimist, though," he said. "I mean, I still haven't given up on playing this Saturday."

Had he really thought there was still a chance of him being selected ahead of Shay Given, rest assured that nobody - yesterday of all days - would have had the heart to set him straight.