THEY COULD have been forgiven for feeling that three days was a short enough timeframe in which to address the many things that went wrong with the defensive side of their team’s game against Russia on Friday night but Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli were yesterday handed a fresh challenge ahead of this morning’s flight to Slovakia as Kevin Doyle was forced out of the squad with a knee injury.

As the Wolves striker returned to his club with a swollen knee, the management quickly started to weigh up their options ahead of tomorrow’s encounter and with Tardelli more or less discounting the idea the manager might opt to deploy a five-man midfield against a side likely to field the same formation, it appears Shane Long is narrowly leading Andy Keogh in a two-horse race to partner Robbie Keane up front.

“It’s a problem because Kevin Doyle is a very important player for us,” said Tardelli as he confirmed the news in Malahide yesterday. “But we have young players like Long and Keogh.

“It’s possible that the manager will decide to pick a young player like them. They are good players, without experience maybe, but they are good players. You saw Long play well against Russia for instance, and also score a goal.”

Given the team’s reliance, intended or not, on finding Doyle with long balls from the back, the loss of the striker does indeed represent a significant blow but Tardelli, as Trapattoni had on Saturday morning, sought to play down suggestions made by Richard Dunne on Friday night that Ireland’s game-plan had amounted to little more than hitting high and hopeful balls towards the opposition area.

“Richard spoke after the match,” said Tardelli, “and sometimes it is better to say nothing after the match. I think Richard knows we have some players who don’t play for their clubs and for us this is very important. Now we have many problems with injuries.

“It is possible sometimes to create play and sometimes not. Against France we played well and we created the play. You remember against France we played long balls but we took the ball in midfield because we had many experienced players. Now some of the team has changed but the Irish team also play . . .

“Yes, sometimes it’s possible to play, sometimes it’s possible to do long ball. Sometimes you can’t start from the back because of the opposition. Many times we tried with the long ball, many times we tried to start.”

On Saturday, the manager talked about the possibility of making other changes to his starting line-up for the game against the Slovaks – who will themselves be without key players like Robert Vittek, Martin Skrtel and, most likely, Miroslav Stock – although he went out of his way to defend Paul Green against criticism, giving the distinct impression in the process that the Derby midfielder’s place is not up for grabs.

In reality, his credible options ahead of such a big game are limited. He had suggested prior to Doyle’s departure he could not go to 4-5-1 against a team that employ a similar formation because it would involve dropping one of his best players.

Now that it would not, he notionally has the option of bringing Darron Gibson into the centre to provide a little more attacking thrust from midfield or if he still prefers not to change an approach he has invested heavily in, he could bring Marc Wilson in for Green or Keith Fahey on for Liam Lawrence.

It appears anything else can be ruled out as unrealistic and the sense yesterday out in Malahide was he would change as little as possible when push comes to shove, with the veteran Italian and his assistant preferring to rely on their most trusted players’ ability to pick themselves up and bounce back from Friday night’s defeat, fired on by a desire to restore dented pride.

“I believe in our team,” said Tardelli. “I know the players are very proud to play for the Irish team. I am very proud to have these players and I think there will be a reaction.

“I think their pride was hurt. I was very proud of the second half because the Irish team, they tried. I don’t know if we would have deserved it or not but it was possible to draw the match.

“I played many times for the national team. When I lost, my pride was always hurt.

“I saw the players were very sad because of the defeat. It’s normal. In football it’s nice because there is always the possibility to show a reaction.

“But it’s important to remember that this was the first game that we lost in the campaign,” he said with a slight hint, it seemed, of exasperation at the tone of the questioning.

Ipswich goalkeeper Brian Murphy was called into the squad last night to replace Keiren Westwood who received a facial injury during training.