Anthony Pilkington, who has one Republic U21 cap to his name earned back in 2008, was unable to link up with the Irish squad in Dublin on Sunday due to what the FAI stated was a hamstring problem suffered in Norwich City's 2-0 friendly defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach. Picture: Paul Chesterton / Focus Images

Injury rules out Anthony Pilkington as Republic of Ireland replacement for Wes Hoolahan

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
9:16 AM

Republic of Ireland officials have claimed they contacted the Canaries over the international availability of Anthony Pilkington following Wes Hoolahan’s injury withdrawal from the squad for this week’s scheduled friendly against Serbia.

Hoolahan was drafted into Giovanni Trapattoni’s party for the trip to Belgrade on Friday afternoon as a late call-up for Everton’s Darron Gibson.

However, the Dubliner pulled out of the squad within a matter of hours due to the Achilles problem that kept him out of City’s final two pre-season games of the summer. The FAI, however, confirmed on their official website over the weekend Trapattoni had been keen to run the rule over Hoolahan’s team-mate Pilkington.

The 24-year-old, who has one Republic U21 cap to his name earned back in 2008, was unable to link up with the Irish squad in Dublin on Sunday night due to what the FAI stated was a hamstring problem suffered in a 67th-minute outing in Norwich’s weekend 2-0 friendly defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach.

Trapattoni’s assistant Marco Tardelli visited Carrow Road on more than one occasion last season to check on City’s Irish-qualified contingent.

èRepublic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has announced his retirement from international football after over 16 years of service.

Given made his debut for his country in March 1996 and went on to represent the Republic a record 125 times. The Aston Villa number one was omitted from Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad for the friendly against Serbia on Wednesday.

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7 comments

I`ve seen those reports blackdog2 & likewise reported to you my own progress on these matters. Just as well we don`t support that Lincolnshire club nicknamed "The Iron". How do we put the Gunners into context?? Or their manager? It`s a mystery to me.

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Mad Brewer

Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Wes, oops Pilks, oops .Hope we dont have any more under consideration for the ROI team, if these things come in three's

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wivenhoebudgie

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Brew, see Bradley Johnson piece for reason comments aare ethered

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blackdog2

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Tried to post a message telling Brew I'd had a reply to the email, guess what? Yes, that's righ it was ethered!

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blackdog2

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Good afternoonBrew, Received reply back from Archant Erasers but sadly it was a wishy washy whitewash to inform their ethering is based on certain words in the text being unsuitable to publish! No mention of the trolls or some of the other rubbish that gets through, I replied to tell them their policy needs looking at and the crossbar needs raising, other than that it was a waste of time, now retired as I no longer enjoy it with the fun and banter curtailed. Customer relations? What's that Gov.?

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blackdog2

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
According to Mark Armstrong, our pre-season has been "perfect", in the sense of few injury probs. Wessi, Pilks, Whits, Foxy. Plus we`ve yet to get "Cushie" Butterfield up & running and we have scant resources at full-back. The full-back situation is very worrying......

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Mad Brewer

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The injury bulldozer continues to run over our rapidly-depleted squad.

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Swiss Canary

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

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