Richard Dunne will remain in Manchester for treatment on an injured calf ahead of the Republic of Ireland's final Euro 2008 qualifier in Cardiff this weekend.

The Manchester City captain sustained a bruised calf muscle during the scoreless draw with Portsmouth yesterday and is a serious concern for Saturday's match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

While caretaker manager Don Givens remains "hopeful" the centre back will join up with the rest of the squad later in the week, a statement on the FAI website this evening conceded that the "offending muscle was said to be heavily bruised and the injury very sore".

Similarly, doubts persist as to the availability of goalkeeper Shay Given and Birmingham full back Stephen Kelly. Given, who has been sidelined with a persistent groin problem for the past couple of weeks, visited a specialist earlier today to assess the extent of the injury and intends to resume full training tomorrow.

Kelly aggravate a knee problem during the Birmingham derby defeat to Aston Villa and, as with Dunne and Given, a final decision on his fitness will be taken on Wednesday at the earliest. Joey O'Brien and Steven Reid already withdrew from the squad shortly after it was announced last week.

Wales manager John Toshack has injury concerns of his own after Gareth Bale became the latest to withdraw. The Tottenham defender has still not recovered from a foot injury sustained against Newcastle last month.

Jason Koumas will join the Wales camp, despite withdrawing from Wigan's squad to face Spurs on Sunday with sickness. Captain Craig Bellamy (abductor strain) is out with Simon Davies favourite to be skipper in Bellamy's absence.

Neither Ireland or Wales have any chance of making the finals in Austria and Switzerland. But Givens and the FAI will hope to use the match to improve their Fifa ranking, ahead of the World Cup qualifying draw on November 23rd.