Keith O'Neill will inform Mick McCarthy this morning if he is sufficiently recovered from a back injury to join the Republic of Ireland squad for Wednesday's World Cup meeting with Lithuania at Lansdowne Road. Before that, he will have undergone a test at Carrow Road to determine his rate of recovery from the damage sustained in Norwich's 4-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest on Friday and which prevented him from linking up, as planned, with the Irish squad on Saturday.

"My back is a lot better than it was yesterday and if that kind of improvement continues, there is still a chance that I will go to Dublin for the game," he said last evening.

"After missing two World Cup matches at the back end of last season, I want to be a part of this one, if it is at all possible. But there's no question of making myself available unless I feel strong enough to last the full 90 minutes.

"There's a long season ahead of me and above all, I don't want to put myself out of commission by playing when I'm not fully fit. But at this point, I certainly haven't given up hope that I'll make the deadline which Mick McCarthy has set me."

Apart from the US Cup competition last summer, the Irish manager has never had the option of using O'Neill and David Connolly in the same attacking formation and to that extent, his disappointment was manifest after he had been told of the Norwich player's injury on Saturday morning.

"It's uncanny. Every time one is fit, the other gets injured," he said. "I liked what I saw of them playing together in America - they are certainly very compatible."

Apart from his scoring ability - he has hit the target four times in just nine international appearances - O'Neill gives the team greater movement up front and if only because of this, his absence would be interpreted by the manager, as a significant setback.

Definitely out of contention is Keith Branagan, the Bolton goalkeeper, who joined Middlesbrough's Alan Moore on the list of withdrawals after failing a test on his badly bruised elbow. His role as goalkeeping cover, goes to Oldham's Gary Kelly, who has been a member of the squad on a number of occasions without ever gaining that coveted first senior cap.

David Kelly who, together with Niall Quinn, joined the squad on Saturday afternoon after assisting his club the previous evening, is regarded as certain to be available for selection, despite taking a painful knock on his ankle.

As yet, it is still not certain when the team will be announced but depending on whether O'Neill gets a clearance to travel to Dublin today, it may be delayed until close to the kick-off. Shortly after the squad set down at their base near Athy, McCarthy had his players out training at a ground adjoining Kilkee Castle Hotel. He acknowledges that at this stage of the season, it's a fine balance between keeping players fresh and over training them and is ready, it seems, to settle for the first option.

To that extent, he avoided heavy work yesterday and a major part of today's programme is likely to be devoted to practising set-piece moves with particular emphasis on corner kicks.

On one point, at least, the manager admits to being perturbed. With two of his players, Jason McAteer and Gary Kelly currently serving suspensions, he has no fewer than nine players, Roy Keane, Gary Breen, Denis Irwin, Ian Harte, Ken Cunningham, David Kelly, Terry Phelan, Jeff Kenna and Mark Kennedy on yellow cards, entering the final phase of the qualifying programme.

"Some of those cards were totally unwarranted but nonetheless, they're there and we must take account of the fact," said McCarthy. "We cannot afford to lose any more players to suspensions but neither can we afford to be less than fully competitive in the tackle.

"Tackling is a legitimate part of the game but inevitably, people are going to be occasionally late and get booked. That's a risk we must be prepared to take but what we cannot afford, are the stupid silly fouls like kicking the ball away after the whistle or giving back-chat to the match officials.

"Those kind of offences count just as much as the wild tackle and must be avoided at all times."