Fears over McAteer

A bad week for the Republic of Ireland took a turn for the worse yesterday when a heavy tackle in a friendly match threatened to put Jason McAteer out of the tournament before it had begun. The Sunderland midfielder was taken off on a stretcher with what was initially suspected to be damage to the medial ligaments of his left knee.

The Irish camp, still recovering from the expulsion of their captain and talisman Roy Keane, are hoping that a scan will show nothing worse than bad bruising. Even that would still endanger McAteer's chances of playing in the opening Group E match against Cameroon on Saturday.

So it was unfortunate, to say the least, that the challenge was made by a Cameroonian, Bilong, a former international in the J-League for yesterday's opponents, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, whom Ireland beat 2-1 with two goals by Robbie Keane. Bilong's lunge was out of character with the occasion, which marked the official opening of a new stadium in Izumo, where the Irish have otherwise been made warmly welcome.

The player and his club were full of apologies afterwards, though Mick McCarthy, the Irish manager, was not disposed to accept them. "I don't think he'd be welcome in our dressing room to apologise," McCarthy said. "It was a bad tackle and in the spirit of a friendly match, there was certainly no need for it. Jason sat in the dressing room with his head down and he is despondent, but I hope he will be OK."

"It was very poor," said Steve Staunton, who has taken over as captain from the banished Roy Keane. Like that pair, McAteer was at Ireland's previous World Cup in 1994, and is now one of the senior figures in the squad. If a replacement was necessary next Saturday, the candidates would be Gary Kelly, who joined the squad at the same time as McAteer, just before the 1994 tournament, or Millwall's Steven Reid, who was called up only 10 days ago, after another wide player, Mark Kennedy, withdrew. Last night Ireland were told by Fifa that, as expected, there could be no replacement for Keane.