SOCCER:GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI faces an anxious wait to see if Robbie Keane is fit for the first of the Republic of Ireland's play-off games in four weeks' time and the Italian admitted yesterday to being frustrated his captain may have undermined his chances of featuring next month by not immediately revealing he had a problem last Friday night in Andorra.

Keane said after that game he had aggravated his gluteal muscle problem during the build-up to Kevin’s Doyle’s goal early on in the game but he didn’t alert the bench to the recurrence of the injury and may now be about to pay the price for playing on.

“I talked to him afterwards about this,” said the Ireland manager yesterday. “If it was a knock then I would not be afraid but because it was a muscular problem he made it worse. I told him that he should have said it immediately but sometimes players are like that, it’s just their eagerness to play.

“For me, though, it’s clear. With a muscle problem there is no room for a discussion. If I have a player who is a doubt before a game because of a problem with a muscle, he never plays and I am sure could never play 90 minutes.

“Now, all we can do is to we remain in touch with him. Every week he has a scan and an injection. So we will follow his progress but it’s a bad injury and he will be missing one month.

“Hopefully he can come back just in time because to qualify we need to mix experienced players with the young. And Robbie is important for us. He can smell the goal and opponents have respect for him.”

The absence of Keane would compound the blow of Kevin Doyle’s suspension but Trapattoni, somewhat inevitably, went on to talk up the alternatives at his disposal, with Shane Long, Simon Cox and Jonathan Walters, who did particularly well after coming on late Tuesday night, all getting very favourable mentions.

Asked about a suggestion by Liam Brady there might be a significant shift in personnel between now and next summer’s finals in the event that Ireland do quality, the veteran coach said he had no favourites and he would replace players as better options became available.

He again hinted that Kevin Kilbane’s career at this level may be at an end but declined to categorically rule anyone out of his plans, not even Lee Carsley, who he name-checked once again as one of the players “we watch,” despite the fact the former Everton, Birmingham and Derby midfielder has at this stage actually retired.

He was initially equally non-committal in terms of today’s draw, insisting he has no real preference with regard to who Ireland are drawn against. On the face of it, Estonia look to be the beatable opponents by a distance but the Italian pointed to the Armenians as evidence that a lack of internationally recognised stars should not be mistaken a lack of ability.

“One team is the same as the others,” he said. “They all finished second in their groups. We played Montenegro before and they were good, with some very important players, but we saw last night that Armenia had no famous players really and yet they could have achieved qualification.”

Pressed on the question later, however, he admitted he would be at least a little relieved to see Estonia come out of the hat with Ireland on the basis they are more physical and less technical than the Montenegrins, Turks or Bosnians.

“They (Estonia) are physically strong and it would not be an easy match but the others are clever and I don’t like us to play against players who are clever. It’s better to play a physical team.”

He also expressed the hope that Ireland would be drawn to play their home game second, something that would have come automatically under the system that prevailed two years ago when France, as the seeded team, got to take Trapattoni’s side back to Paris after their visit to Croke Park.

“Yes, that was me, they changed it because I said “this is not fair” but now I would like to play away first and have our opponents at home second,” he said.

Such a draw would require a little luck but, as was put to the 72-year-old – who said he is happy to wait to discuss any new contract offer until the FAI are ready to open talks or, failing that, to take on a new challenge – he has had plenty of that of late.

“And thank God!” he exclaimed. I won a lot of cups and championships in my career and I can tell you that luck is a good thing.

“Napoleon chose his generals because they were lucky, not because they were brave.

“And you,” he said with a smile, addressing the journalist who had asked the question, “you are a beautiful man . . . but sometimes you still need a little luck to get a woman.”