SOCCER:A WEEK or so after expressing bewilderment at his failure to become more of a regular under Giovanni Trapattoni, Leon Best's latest involvement with the Irish squad was ended before it really began yesterday.

The Newcastle striker, who was called up on Thursday but then became a doubt due to injury over the weekend, finally withdrew from the trip to Tallinn last night as his wife went into labour.

The 25-year-old is now, like John O’Shea, scheduled to join up with the rest of the group on Saturday but seems likely to have missed an opportunity to endear himself to the Italian at a time when the manager’s striking options are limited by the absence of Kevin Doyle and Shane Long.

However, to judge by Trapattoni yesterday, Best would have started the first game against Estonia on Friday as a spectator, with the veteran coach strongly suggesting that Jonathan Walters and Stephen Kelly will fill the vacancies left by Doyle and O’Shea respectively.

The 72-year-old talked up the Stoke City striker who made an impressive international debut this time last year against Norway and has also done well in the couple of appearances he has made since.

Trapattoni said while Simon Cox is similar in style to Keane, Walters is better suited to complementing the Irish skipper’s game and echoed his suggestion last week that Keane could thrive while playing off the highly industrious striker.

Walters was interested to hear the manager’s comments last night and was enthusiastic about the prospect of being handed a starring role in Tallinn, even as he pointed out that he is actually more used at Stoke City to playing the deeper lying role traditionally earmarked for Keane in the Irish side. He is, however, more than happy to play wherever Trapattoni sees fit if it means getting a crack at a game this big and, perhaps, a major international tournament.

“I’ve played with five or six different strikers over the last two years and I’ve sort of adapted to each player,” he said. “Obviously I’ve watched Robbie for many years in the premier league and for Ireland. And now he’s out in America and scored yesterday. I’ve watched him and yeah, why not? I’ve played with so many different strikers. You go and do the job the manager gives you.”

Like Best, Walters has failed over the past year or so to get any momentum behind the international side of his career although he points out that he also had his reasons for pulling out of some the squads in which he was named, notably for the qualifying game against Macedonia at the tail-end of last season.

“I had a fractured shoulder,” he recalls, a point made in his defence at the time by Tony Pulis. “It happened around the last New Year and I had to have injections in my shoulder to play every game. I didn’t train as much and I had to be strapped up for every game. I needed to rest my shoulder, otherwise it wouldn’t get any better. It was getting worse. I was having X-rays periodically and it was chipping more and more away. Towards the end, it was such a massive season with the FA Cup final and the league, there was a lot of pressure to play, so I had the injections. But I wasn’t really training much.

“Now”, he concluded, “there’s no problem at all; I feel comfortable at this level. If I do get the chance, I’ll take it. I’d love to play some part in the games and get some minutes out on the pitch. I’m ready to go.”

He is more than willing to take a penalty if it comes to it next Tuesday night back in Dublin and that might just play well with Trapattoni who says that spot kicks will be practised over the coming days.

The Italian, however, is rather less likely to emulate Paul Cook by intervening on the goalkeeping front in such circumstances. He still seemed a little bemused by events on Sunday at the Aviva stadium where Sligo’s Ciarán Kelly replaced Brendan Clarke and, for the second year in succession, made a decisive contribution to events.

“Out of respect to the goalkeeper I would never do it,” said Trapattoni. “But then if you have a goalkeeper and last year he saved four [penalties] it’s interesting. Obviously for the other it was a shame but the change can be important psychologically for the opponent shooting the penalty. If he knows that this goalkeeper saved so many last year and then his penalties are poor because he is worried that the goalkeeper is so good then perhaps it works. It’s true it’s not correct. I wouldn’t do it but, I don’t know, I can see it both ways.”