WORLD CUP SOCCER REPUBLIC OF IRELAND v BULGARIA:STEPHEN HUNT will return to the Republic of Ireland's starting line-up tomorrow night against Bulgaria after Damien Duff was ruled out of the game with a hamstring injury sustained in Wednesday afternoon's training session at Malahide.

The 30-year-old completed the run-out but suffered some discomfort afterwards and when a scan yesterday morning revealed damage to the muscle that would prevent him playing for at least the next week, it was decided to send him back to England for further treatment.

News of Duff’s departure was first reported on irishtimes.com shortly after lunchtime yesterday with an injury always appearing to be the most likely cause.

But the FAI declined to confirm the basis for it until after training several hours later and in the meantime there was some frenzied speculation doing the rounds on supporters’ websites about the player having been involved in a row. It was 5.30pm before Ireland’s assistant manager Liam Brady confirmed the rather more mundane facts of the matter.

“There’s a slight bleed in there which rules him out for maybe the next week or eight or nine days of football,” said Brady.

“It’s only right that he’s gone back to Newcastle to get himself prepared for Newcastle’s next league game. Even if we had kept him, he couldn’t have played against Italy on Wednesday.”

Brady said the former Chelsea winger had been terribly disappointed to be told the news, but that manager Giovanni Trapattoni had told him to concentrate on being fully fit for the trip to Sofia at the end of the season.

“He’s very down because he was telling me he felt great, he got 90 minutes under his belt on Saturday. He felt good in training but unfortunately these things happen. The manager had a good chat with him and said ‘Look, the campaign is not yet halfway through and we’re going to need you’, and to get himself ready for when we meet up again at the end of May to confront Bulgaria on June 6th. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice few points in the bag when he comes back.

“It’s a disappointment because Damien is one of those players who never stops running,” the former Irish skipper continued. “He’s on the go all the time. He’s been a big, big player for us in the games we’ve played so far. We have 10 points on the board and Damien has been very influential in achieving those points. He is a big blow but Bulgaria have their problems as well.”

Duff, in fact, missed the qualifiers away to Georgia and Montenegro back in September with a groin strain and had only returned to the Newcastle team last weekend after a month on the sidelines with a calf strain. In those two opening internationals of the current campaign Stephen Hunt took his place and they stand out as the only ones of Hunt’s 16 caps to date in which he has played for the entire 90 minutes.

The 28-year-old has, in fact, lost his starting place at Reading in recent weeks with Jimmy Kebe selected ahead of the Irishman as manager Steve Coppell desperately tried to get the team back to winning ways.

At international level he has probably been at his best when coming off the bench to inject energy into the second half of games, but he has made no secret of his desire to feature from the outset more often and Brady insists that the Irish management team has no reservations about his ability to make a major impact tomorrow and next Wednesday in Bari.

“Stephen comes in and we have total confidence in him,” said the Dubliner. “He’s played a big part in the campaign so far. He played against Georgia and Montenegro, in both games, and was very, very good. We have total confidence he is going to do the business for us on Saturday.”

Ireland’s problems on the wings, however, might not end at Duff’s sudden exit from the camp for Aiden McGeady has still not done enough to prove his fitness ahead of the Bulgaria game even if Brady insists that the Celtic winger is expected to come through a full session this afternoon.

“I think it’s more likely that he plays,” said Brady when asked about his chances of making it, “but, having said that, we won’t know until he comes through a training session tomorrow.

“We’ve kept him out of contact, his foot is still badly bruised but with bruising the longer it goes on the better it gets. It’s his right foot but,” he joked, “he’s two-footed so it’s all right.

“The manager will want to see some sort of contact, comfort when he is kicking the ball and things like that tomorrow,” he added.

“We’ve got to have fit players out there but with Aiden, we believe he’ll make Saturday, but it’s the type of injury if he’s not going to make Saturday, he’ll make Wednesday whereas in Damien’s case that wasn’t so.”

Brady, meanwhile, appeared to reopen the question of who will play at right back for Ireland tomorrow by revealing that Trapattoni is still considering his options.

“I think you’ve seen from yesterday that Paul McShane is probably in his mind but, having said that, Paul’s not played for a while, has he?

“He has to take all these things into consideration when he makes his final decision but that’s what he’s going to do.”

The team’s other fitness concern seemed to be sorted out yesterday with Shay Given coming through the training session without any problems and confirming afterwards that his availability is not in doubt.