Mick McCarthy yesterday confessed to having an open mind on the composition of his front line after losing Keith O'Neill for tomorrow evening's World Cup qualifying game against Lithuania at Lansdowne Road.

The Norwich player, who damaged his back while playing against Nottingham Forest last Friday night, was forced to pull out of the squad yesterday after he tested the injury before the start of training at Carrow Road yesterday morning.

"Although it again felt a little easier today, my back is still not right and, in that situation, it was pointless delaying a decision any longer," he said. "I'm very disappointed for, while I've had two days to mull over my situation, I was hoping against hope, that I could get over to Dublin to play.

"But the club was reluctant to let me travel unless I was 100 per cent recovered and that's a view I have to share. There was no point in risking further damage to my back and, perhaps, putting myself out for much longer.

"In the sense that I haven't started a game for Ireland since the one against Macedonia at Lansdowne Road last October, it's a bad blow to me to be out of the frame for this one. But, hopefully, my luck will now change and I can get on with my international career." If 48 hours agonising had prepared McCarthy for a choice of replacement it certainly didn't show when he held court at the squad's new headquarters at Kilkea Castle in Co Kildare yesterday. Confirming that he would not go public with his team until the mandatory 50 minutes before kick-off, he said he hadn't yet decided whether he would structure his team on a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 basis.

"Either way, the formation will be fluid. I don't intend to put extra pressure on myself by having to meet an early deadline for the announcement of the side. I will take my time, let the players know first and then name it in the usual way." Given the situation in which Ireland find themselves - a return of six points from their remaining two home games is imperative if they are to make the cut for the World Cup finals - it is scarcely conceivable that he will choose to go with just one specialist forward.

With the assumption that David Connolly - now re-adjusting to the different priorities of European football with the Dutch club, Feyenoord - will play, it focuses attention on the rival claims of Niall Quinn and Tony Cascarino for a place in the starting line-up.

There was a time during the Jack Charlton era when Cascarino rated higher than Quinn in the pecking order, but that changed during the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy when Quinn's arrival as target man was perceived as improving the strike power of the team. That judgement has stayed valid for much of the last seven years but now, at last, things may be about to change again.

McCarthy, who left Quinn out of his squad even after the tall Sunderland player had returned from injury in the closing months of last season, was at pains to praise the Dubliner yesterday, describing him as "sharper, leaner and hungrier than for some time".

The evidence is, however, that he now views Quinn increasingly as a one dimensional player and that his inclusion in the team would induce a return to long ball tactics favoured by the previous regime. Cascarino's role was wholly disimiliar to that of Quinn in the Charlton era, but the indications are that McCarthy now sees him as the more adaptable of the two - a product, he believes, of the three years which Cascarino spent in French football.

Connolly, of course, is now with Feyenoord and here again, McCarthy believes it will make the former Watford striker a better player.

It's a great move for him, particularly as he had come to the end of the line at Watford. It's a great footballing education for any English player to go abroad and David is young enough to take full advantage of it."

While not minimising the loss of his suspended pair, Jason McAteer and Gary Kelly or the Wimbledon forward, Jon Goodman, a man who he believes gives the team extra movement in the top third of the pitch, McCarthy finds solace in the fact that he still has possibly his strongest squad since taking on the job of national team manager.

Midfield, for example, is brimming with options and, while Roy Keane and Andy Townsend will again be required to undertake the bulk of the work in this area, the manager went out of his way to make special mention of Ray Houghton.

"I watched him in training this morning and marvelled yet again at his enthusiasm for the game," he said. "He may be 35 but I think he was up for it today, just as much as the first time he joined the team. He's a great example to the younger guys and a great lad to have in the squad."

Just where that leaves Alan McLoughlin, voted Ireland's senior Player of the Year in 1996, remains to be seen, but the certainty is that Houghton is very much in McCarty's mind as he prepares to finalise his team. Benjaminas Zelkevidius, the Lithuanian coach, remains almost as secretive about his team plans as his Irish counterpart but he is ready to testify to at least one point - he believes his squad is enough to earn at least a point.

"We have always known that the game in Dublin would be one of our hardest," he said. "But we are stronger now than when we had our first game and, if we play carefully, we will not be beaten."