The return of Wimbledon's Kenny Cunningham and call up of Tottenham's inform summer signing Gary Doherty for this month's friendly game against Denmark yesterday marked another stage in Mick McCarthy's ongoing attempt to develop his options in what has, for some time, been the Republic of Ireland's weakest area of the pitch.

Cunningham, who has only just got back playing following a prolonged lay-off, caused by a groin injury that required surgery during the summer, is the key addition to the panel. Recent reports from London suggested the defender might struggle to be fully fit even for next month's competitive games against Cyprus and Andorra, but McCarthy confirmed yesterday that his assistant, Ian Evans, had been to see the former Ireland captain in action at the weekend when his club played Sheffield Wednesday and that the Dubliner had looked to be in impressive form.

McCarthy said yesterday that he was "delighted" to have Cunningham back, observing that, with Gary Breen having been in "outstanding" form recently at Coventry and Richard Dunne having shown himself capable of performing at the very highest level, there was now real competition for places at the heart of the Republic's defence.

Doherty's impact at Tottenham over the past couple of months will only improve that situation for the Republic's manager who, for the Denmark match, has felt able to pass over both Andy O'Brien and Phil Babb.

"It's great that Andy's doing well at Bradford," said McCarthy, "and I'm certainly not ruling Phil out of my plans forever, but the fact is that he's down the pecking order at the moment and right now I'm better off looking to see what Gary can do for us."

While Babb has simply been omitted, Mark Kennedy probably would have returned to the Irish panel for the first time since being arrested in Dublin last year but for a hamstring injury. Gary Kelly misses the trip home out too as a result of a hernia.

Also omitted is Keith O'Neill with McCarthy admitting that the Dubliner is one of many players to have benefitted from the arrival of Terry Venables at Middlesbrough but ultimately preferring Kevin Kilbane and Damien Duff for the slot on the wide left of his midfield.

Elsewhere, it is essentially the same squad that McCarthy picked for the first three outings of this current World Cup campaign, with all 11 of the players who started the games against the Netherlands, Portugal and Estonia expected to travel for the match which takes place at Lansdowne Road on the 28th of this month.

Some doubt remains about Niall Quinn who has been struggling with a back injury over the past few weeks but McCarthy hopes that he, Rory Delap and one or two others that have been carrying knocks will join up with the squad.

"There are bound to be problems," he said, "I mean Shay (Given) is another one who there will be a question mark over after he hurt his finger at the weekend - he thinks he dislocated it - but it would be nice to get everybody together for the few days even if they're not all 100 per cent."

If Given does miss out then it may well hand Dean Kiely an important opportunity to nail down the goalkeeper's jersey. McCarthy has made no secret of the fact that he saw Alan Kelly's difficulty in winning first-team football at Blackburn as a potential problem when it comes to him retaining his place at international level.

While expressing his surprise that Kelly is not playing regularly "somewhere" the Republic's manager said yesterday that he had told Kelly that "if he's playing in the Blackburn reserves, he's under threat" and informed all three contenders in Amsterdam that "while I'm prepared to rotate the substitute's place, I'm not prepared to do that with the first team spot".

Strong performances for their clubs in recent months have earned Stephen Reid, Brian O'Callaghan and Keith Foy places in Don Givens' Republic of Ireland under21 squad to play Denmark on February 27th at Dalymount Park.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND SQUAD (v Denmark, Wednesday, February 28th): Kelly (Blackburn), Given (Newcastle Utd), Kiely (Charlton), Carr (Tottenham), Staunton (Aston Villa), Harte (Leeds), Breen (Coventry), Dunne (Man City), Cunningham (Wimbledon), Doherty (Tottenham), Roy Keane (Man Utd), Kinsella (Charlton), Carsley (Coventry), McAteer (Blackburn), Holland (Ipswich), Kilbane (Sunderland), Finnan (Fulham), Delap (Derby), Duff (Blackburn), Quinn (Sunderland), Robbie Keane (Leeds), Connolly (Feyenoord).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND UNDER-21 SQUAD (v Denmark, Dalymount Park, Tuesday, February 27th): Murphy (Tranmere), Delaney (Port Vale), Lynch (Leeds), Gavin (Middlesbrough), O'Shea (Royal Antwerp), O'Callaghan (Barnsley), Clarke (Stoke), Foy (Nottm Forest), Healy (Celtic), B Quinn (Coventry), O'Connor (Stoke), McGrath (Aston Villa), Reid (Millwall), A Quinn (Sheff Wed), Miller (Celtic), Sadlier (Millwall), George (Luton), Reddy (Swindon).

Players on stand-by: Byrne (West Ham), Baker (Shelbourne), Thompson (Nottm Forest), Foran (Shelbourne).