McCarthy, Keogh and Maguire ruled out of Republic’s World Cup play-off

James McCarthy and Richard Keogh have joined Sean Maguire in being ruled out of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against Denmark by injury.The trio were included in the provisional 34-man party named by boss Martin O’Neill last month for the two legs at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium on Saturday and the Aviva Stadium in Dublin three days later.But Everton midfielder McCarthy has been sidelined by a hamstring problem after making his only first-team appearance of the season on October 25, while Derby defender Keogh limped off early in his club’s 4-2 loss to Reading on Saturday due to a groin issue.Martin O'Neill: Keogh, McCarthy and Maguire are out of the two games. We'll assess one or two others. #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/0kFJsW6jl7— FAIreland ?????????? (@FAIreland) November 6, 2017The Football Association of Ireland on Monday announced that the pair would miss the games against Denmark, along with Preston forward Maguire.A statement on the FAI’s website said: “Injuries have ruled out defender Richard Keogh (Groin), midfielder James McCarthy (Hamstring) and forward Sean Maguire (Hamstring).”Other men dropping out from O’Neill’s squad as he trimmed the group down to 27 are David McGoldrick, Jonny Hayes, Daryl Horgan and Alan Browne.UPDATE | Ireland squad trimmed ahead of FIFA World Cup Play-Off. https://t.co/Xvbv9qz6ia #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/XnA5Mp3qHL— FAIreland ?????????? (@FAIreland) November 6, 2017Hull midfielder David Meyler is included but will miss the first leg through suspension. There is no place for Jonathan Walters, who has had a niggling knee injury.Walters did not make the 34-man list but O’Neill admitted when that squad was announced that he had not yet closed the door on the Burnley forward, saying: “I haven’t put him in at the moment, but he’s making good progress and we’ll see what the next 10 days brings.”Since then the Clarets have played twice, with Walters having no involvement.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By PA Sport Staff'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'ddfc4473-53e6-418e-9ece-bd5a99eb4d08'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story-enriched'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football'); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'McCarthy, Keogh and Maguire ruled out of Republicu2019s World Cup play-off'});

Source: By PA Sport Staff