Another international week and another collection of notable absentees, Shay Given, Stephen Reid, Graham Kavanagh and now Stephen Carr among them.

Those still standing, fit enough to turn up for duty this week, acknowledged their absent friends at the team hotel yesterday, but, as they must, spoke confidently about the prospect of taking three points from Cyprus on Saturday despite the injury woes. They admitted, though, that anything less and even a clean bill of health for the rest of the campaign might not be enough to revive hopes of qualification.

The last time the players assembled there was fighting talk about not being afraid of Germany, of being confident they could take at least a point from the game in Stuttgart. It wasn't, of course, to be. The fighting talk this time around is grounded in a little more reality. True, "there are no easy games in international football any more" got a few airings yesterday, but they're not, they told us, looking for an easy game, just the win.

For Alan Lee, though, an appearance of any sorts would feel like something of a personal triumph, coming, as it would, two years after winning his last cap - against Cyprus, of all people.

Since then injuries and, by his own admission, bouts of poor form have made that eight cap seem like a distant prospect, but now he feels "in as strong as a position as I have ever felt coming into an Irish squad".

"On and off the pitch I have never been more content," said the Ipswich striker, who made his debut for Ireland back in April 2003.

"I don't want to go on about it but I had problems for so long with my groins and with my stomach that it just seemed I would never get an injury clear run at it, it was a hugely frustrating time. But I had an operation during the summer and that seems to have taken care of it - part of it seemed to be down to the fact that I have one leg an inch longer than the other.

"But now I'm running around in training like all the others, rather than being the guy who had to rest, take it easy. Touch wood, I feel great now, I have six or seven games under my belt with Ipswich, I've never been in better shape."

Lee moved from Cardiff City to Ipswich in January of this year, bringing to an end another frustrating spell in his career.

"I had a couple of false dawns there, I'd score a couple of goals, feel like I'd turned the corner, but I was always battling against poor form and injuries - if something went right then something always went wrong.

"But I still always felt things could happen for me, that I'd achieve my potential, I just needed a break from those injuries. Things are great now, it's very nice to be involved in this squad, and even nicer to come into it feeling 100 per cent fit."

While the assumption might be that Clinton Morrison will step into the breach should Kevin Doyle fail to recover from his injury Lee is hoping to give Steve Staunton some food for thought in training in the coming days.

"I suppose I bring something different, height being one factor, I'd certainly like to think so, Steve has mentioned that to me," he said. "I just hope to score lots of goals in training between now and the Cyprus game, put that image in Steve's mind, we'll see. But it's just very nice to be back, especially at a time when I'm feeling good. I've got three goals in my last three games for Ipswich, I've been playing well, so I'm feeling confident. Hopefully I will get the chance to show what I can do.