Football: Irwin flies in on day of good news for McCarthy

DENIS IRWIN, the veteran Manchester United defender, flew into Dublin last night confident that he will be able to take his place in the Republic of Ireland side for Saturday's European Championship play- off first leg against Turkey at Lansdowne Road.

The 34-year-old Irwin, who has been receiving constant treatment at Old Trafford on the knee injury that kept him out of United's 2-0 defeat of Leicester on Saturday, is set to win his 55th international cap.

There was more good news for the Irish coach, Mick McCarthy, with further improvements to the injuries to the Wimbledon defender Kenny Cunningham and the Leeds utility man, Ian Harte. "Both lads are desperately keen to play in this game, but we will see how they progress in training later in the week," McCarthy said.

Cunningham and Harte were in opposition at Selhurst Park on Sunday when Leeds were beaten 2-0 by the Dons. A knee ligament injury initially put Cunningham's chances of winning his 28th cap in doubt, while Harte is recovering from a back complaint.

The Irish, who yesterday had a 24-hour "get away from it all" break at the luxurious Kilkea Castle Hotel in Kildare, return to intensive preparations in Dublin today. Not since the glory days of Jack Charlton's management has there been so much interest in a Republic of Ireland fixture and tickets for the 33,000 capacity crowd have been selling in excess of pounds 200 on the black market.

The Turkish coach, Mustafa Denizli, is confident that his team can progress to the finals after the second leg in Bursa next Wednesday.

"After beating Germany 1-0 in the qualifiers at home and then recording a scoreless draw against them in Munich, we really deserve to be in the finals already," he said.

"But we have to respect this Irish team, especially with players like Roy Keane, Niall Quinn, Denis Irwin and Robbie Keane in their squad. Quinn will be a big problem as he is so tall and dangerous in the air. Maybe I will need three men to mark him."