Quinn's back is key to the future

Steve Tongue hears the veteran Irish striker vow to return refreshed

If Tony Blair wants an ambassador for a campaign to get more people voting, he need look no further than one of his own constituents in Sedgefield, who has already performed that very function in his native Ireland.

Niall Quinn, recognised as the sort of figure people might be inclined to take more notice of than a politician, relished the opportunity, presented two years ago by the Irish government's Department of Youth Affairs, combining as it did his interest in politics and in helping young people to take responsibility for their lives.

He has always been one to look beyond the confines of football pitch and dressing-room, whether as a newspaper columnist, radio presenter or racehorse owner. He once said: "Life is too short to sit back and put your feet up... I can't wait to shove my energy into real work when my career is over."

While he would doubtless welcome a call from his MP and PM, Mr Blair's office should be advised that putting his feet up is exactly what the Sunderland and Republic of Ireland striker must do for a while to ensure that "real work" waits a little longer and that a successful career for country and three top-flight clubs (Arsenal, Man- chester City and Sunderland) is not ended prematurely.

There are those who have written him off, in the past and more recently. "I've had two cruciates and proved you all wrong for the last five or six years," Quinn told a group of journalists the morning after the Republic's 2-0 victory in Estonia last week, in which the back problem that has troubled him for months forced his substitution after only 36 minutes.

He would have needed to adopt an equally defiant air had he been at a Tallinn hotel a couple of hours earlier, where one Irish supporter, flushed with success and the previous night's celebrations on the local brew, announced himself at breakfast with the matter-of-fact declaration: "Well, that's the end of Quinner."

It would be a sad end, if only because a likeable man ­ and a better footballer than he is often given credit for ­ has for 12 months now been one inter-national goal away from becoming the highest scorer in his country's history. Five times this season the Dubliner has gone out needing one lucky ricochet off any part of his lanky anatomy to pass Frank Stapleton's record of 20; five times the ball has not run for him.

He has stopped talking about the record now, and reporters, in unspoken collusion, have more or less stopped asking. But on Thursday, however sympathetically phrased, the question of his fitness ­ with a critical game against Holland on the horizon, plus the small matter of a new Premiership season ­ could hardly be avoided. "I'd love to have gone into every game fully fit, but it's just something I've had to live with all season," he said. "[The Sunderland manager] Peter Reid has been brilliant and told me to take as long as I need. I've been playing game after game and never had the chance to rest. Now I'm going to have five or six weeks and, please God, I'll sort it out. I could come back in six weeks' time and be better than I ever was."

Given the way he plays for club and country, as a target man sought out for endless headers, with big defenders crashing into him from behind, his back is a vulnerable region. It took only one such challenge from an Estonian after 10 minutes of Wednesday's game to cause discomfort and then immobility, forcing him to make way for his stylistic successor in the green shirt, Tottenham's Gary Doherty.

"I hope he can find the elixir of life for the next couple of games," said Ireland's manager, Mick McCarthy, later of his former team-mate. The prize is great, as Quinn is well aware: "We've two games left in the group and nothing would be more pleasing than to be part of the team that got us through. And we're still in the running."

Further forward than that he would not look, beyond dropping a hint that it might be time to call it a day even if the Irish do qualify for their first tournament finals since the 1994 World Cup, which he cruelly missed with one of those cruciate problems.

But the end of Quinner? Do not bet on it.