Denmark v Republic of Ireland:Stephen Ireland and Jonathan Douglas brought the number of players to be forced out of the Republic of Ireland's friendly international against Denmark in Aarhus to four yesterday when they withdrew from the trip because of illness and impending transfer activity respectively.

Manchester City informed the FAI that Ireland was unfit for travel due to the illness that kept him out of Sunday's victory over arch-rivals United. Douglas, meanwhile, is on the verge of moving from Leeds United and preferred to stay put to sort out the details of his exit.

The pair join Stephen Elliott and Paul McShane in missing the game which manager Steve Staunton will use to help finalise his preferred starting 11 for next month's key qualifiers against Slovakia and the Czech Republic in Bratislava and Prague respectively.

"Yeah, we're missing some good players but it's like at club level, other players have to step up to the plate," said team coach Kevin MacDonald who took yesterday morning's training session in the absence of Staunton who was attending the funeral of his father Tom.

"There is a lot of talent in this squad and we've got to get on with what we've got here. I just hope we get the right result and right performance more than anything."

Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt missed yesterday morning's run-out in Malahide but MacDonald insisted the player's absence had merely been precautionary. "If the game was today he'd be available for selection," he said.

Steve Finnan arrived into Dublin after the session had been completed, while the rest of the players involved in Sunday games - Andy Keogh and Darren Potter of Wolves as well as Celtic's Aiden McGeady - were all rested.

Among those who did take part was Andy Reid, the 25-year-old Dubliner who is in line to make his first appearance for the Republic since the 5-0 defeat of San Marino in which he scored last November.

The Charlton player has endured some turbulent times since then with a succession of injuries keeping him sidelined just as his club was slipping out of the Premiership.

"It was disappointing, if you want to sum it up in one word," he says. "We got relegated and it's never nice to be relegated. I was doing okay when I was playing. I was starting to hit a bit of form and then the injuries kicked in and there was nothing I could do about them. They are part of football, and I had to deal with it. I have dealt with it and I dealt with it quite well, mentally and physically. I have come back stronger."

Having failed to make the impact he had hoped to after arriving at Spurs from Nottingham Forest and then requiring surgery on the recurring hamstring injury after the move to the Valley, Reid found himself at a critical point in his career.

Thanks to the support of Charlton manager Alan Pardew, however, and his own determination to get things back on track, he now appears to have put his problems behind him. "The manager was really good with me. I think he understood the situation I was in and how difficult it was for me to sit and watch. I understood it was difficult for people to be playing every week and not winning and he understood it was difficult for me to be sitting there watching that.

"He gave me time off when he thought I needed it and he was always there with a pat on the back when I needed that as well. I feel I have come through it a lot stronger. It was the first time I have had a real length of time off with injury and I felt I did handle it quite well."

Once back in the team, Pardew made him skipper and handed him the greater responsibility of driving the side forward from central midfield. The club has started the campaign a little slowly but Reid got his first goal of the new season on Saturday and is determined to be back playing top-flight football this time next year.

"I don't need anyone to tell me what to do now," he says when it is put to him Pardew has challenged him to come with the goods required to help the team win promotion at the first attempt, "because that's what I want in 12 months' time."

Along the way, he insists, Ireland can still haul themselves back into one of the qualification places for next summer's European Championship finals in Switzerland and Austria.

"People talk about us having made a poor start but you look at the group now and we're massively in with a chance going into what I would consider a very exciting spell of games," he says.

The revival, he recalls, started in the home game against the Czechs and while it was the visitors who took an away point that night, Reid still maintains the Irish performance will make Karel Brückner's men a little wary next month.

"It was good to put in a good performance against them, especially after the disappointment of the game before in Cyprus. It was great that we went out and performed against a world-class side.

"We're not under any illusions now when we go out there that it's going to be comfortable or anything like that. We know it's going to be a difficult game but I think we have put a few doubts in their mind that maybe weren't there before. That will be a big thing. They will be thinking 'hang on a minute, this is not going to be easy'."