Weekly Wire
Wed, April 15 2009
Northern Ireland's friendly against Italy on June 6 looks likely to be a fundraiser for the recent earthquake victims.
The venue is said to be the Abruzzo region which of course was recently hard hit by a series of quakes that claimed nearly 300 victims and left over 28,000 homeless.
On our player front there's nothing too much to report. George Sausages McCartney is out for a few weeks with a calf injury at Sunderland while colleague Healy missed the recent 1-2 defeat and the hands of Man Utd. Conspicuous was also the exclusion of Jonny Evans after he limped off at Old Trafford last week against Porto. As if that wasn't bad enough McAuley has been out at Portman Road with a hamstring injury but is likely to make a full return in the next week or so.
It's not all bad news though. U-21 defender Chris Casement has contrastingly returned to Portman Road following an impressive loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers. Casement started 12 games at Adams Park for Peter Taylor who was impressed enough to consider a move for him over the summer. Meanwhile Walter Smith is likely to add to his tally of Northern Ireland players at Ibrox with serious interest in West Brom's Chris Brunt and Cardiff's Warren Feeney. Feeno is on loan at Dundee but Craig Levein will be unlikely to make a comparable offer. Brunt has had an impressive season at the Hawthornes with six goals this season. This however is unlikely to prevent the peril West Brom face, so a move is most definitely on the cards.
Michael O'Connor's loan spell at Lincoln City has expired and he is due back at Crewe. He is not the most popular with the hierarchy at Gresty Road and will miss the next two games through suspension. It's is likely Occy will be another player transfer to keep an eye on in the closed season.
Finally, Northern Ireland supporters will be delighted to hear that the Czech Republic are in disarray following last weeks 2-1 home defeat to Slovakia. As a result Petr Rada has been sacked as coach and captain Tomas Ujfalusi has retired following recent allegations. The tabloids pounced on a late night visit to a restaurant and fingers were pointed to the company he and other players were keeping. Ujfalusi felt the Czech FA were unsupportive and will now no longer play internationally. It is unknown whether the other players involved, West Ham's Radoslav Kovac and Reading's Marek Matejovsky, will follow suit.
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