Confident , perhaps, that they know the new man at the helm well enough already, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane made just the tiniest piece of Irish footballing history over the weekend by becoming the first players to cry off from a Brian Kerr senior international squad. Emmet Malone on the build-up to Wednesday's game.

The pair were regulars in the manager's youth teams as recently as 1999, and the 49-year-old is sure to miss them as he prepares for Wednesday's game against Scotland - his first in charge at the higher level.

Leeds United, though, were at least considerate enough to provide the Dubliner with a reminder that his future may yet contain more battles when the club, which had haggled so doggedly over the release of players for the World Youth Cup in Nigeria, withdrew Gary Kelly from the panel. Later, Mark Kennedy completed the casualty list when it was confirmed that the Wolves winger needs treatment on a troublesome hamstring.

After his first training session in Kilmarnock yesterday, Kerr remained upbeat, describing the run-out, which started with Chris Hughton taking charge of the warm-up and got under way in earnest after the coaching staff and players had completed a six-minute "huddle", as "great".

It was rather subdued, however, with around half of those present taking things easy after playing on Saturday. With their recovery complete and the arrival of eight more players by this morning, including the Hearts defender Alan Maybury who scored against Kilmarnock on Saturday, being drafted in to bring the numbers back up to 22, today's sessions should be a little more lively.

Steve Carr, however, may be missing again this morning after suffering with a virus over the weekend, while Rory Delap's time of arrival was still a little uncertain as his wife was expected to give birth over the weekend.

"Yesterday was more an opportunity for everyone to get to know Noel (O'Reilly), Chris and myself," said Kerr after the 13 who had arrived had had their run-out at Ayr United's Somerset Park. "I was very happy with the way it went and I'd be hoping that we get in a couple of good days before the game."

While Kenny Cunningham took no part in yesterday's session, after having played three times in just eight days for Birmingham despite returning recently from injury, Kerr chatted with the team skipper from the Russia and Switzerland games for half an hour. It is not yet clear whether the central defender will retain the captain's armband, and even his status as a regular starter would appear to be under question as competition increases in that department.

Kerr, meanwhile, will be disappointed to be without his team's most talented attacking players for a game, he insists, he wants to win. But, as he said when asked about the timeframe within which he sees the Roy Keane saga being resolved, "we have some very important games coming up after this one".

The hope will be that the four players missing this morning will be fit for the trips to Georgia and Albania, and there is nothing to suggest that Duff will have any problems.

But with Keane due to have a scan on the twisted knee he sustained on Saturday, Kelly reportedly having treatment for a shin complaint not unlike the one that caused him so much trouble three years ago, and Kennedy heading for Germany to have a recurring hamstring problem looked at, it is far from certain how quickly they can regain full fitness.

Of the three, Keane is the most crucial to Kerr's hopes of reviving the team's qualification prospects, and Glenn Hoddle appeared to feel after Saturday's defeat of Sunderland that his player may only have "tweaked" his knee, although he made it clear that only after the player had undergone some tests would it become possible to estimate how long he would be laid up for.

Asked if he would give everyone a game, Kerr suggested that he would prefer to keep things more settled in the hope of enhancing the team's chances of winning.

"We have to ask ourselves why we play these games. I want to win it and it's not as if we have any new players in the squad that we really have to have a look at."