Sadlier's World Cup lifeline

By Paul Higham

MILLWALL striker Richard Sadlier has been handed a World Cup lifeline after being named in Mick McCarthy's squad to face America on Wednesday.

A hip injury had threatened to ruin his dreams of going to Japan and Korea when he was forced to pull-out of the last squad a month ago, and he thought his season was over.

It now seems that he has won his battle for fitness, and McCarthy has given him the chance to earn a place on the plane to The Far East.

"This is great news, more than I expected," said Sadlier.

"I have been fighting the injury for the last number of weeks and it did look as if my season was over at one point.

"I was resigned then to missing the chance to make the World Cup squad but now this changes everything. It makes all the pain worthwhile."

McCarthy is still without the injured Roy Keane, Alan Kelly, Mark Kennedy and Lee Carsley, but is confident that they will be available for the World Cup.

McCarthy has named a 24-man squad for the game at Lansdowne Road as he looks to settle on a final party for the finals.

After convincing wins over Russia and Denmark, McCarthy is looking to keep the run going against the USA.

Ireland will then play Sunderland in Niall Quinn's testimonial before facing England's World Cup opponents Nigeria in Dublin before leaving for Japan.

Full squad to face USA:

Shay Given (Newcastle), Dean Kiely (Charlton), Nick Colgan (Hibernian), Steve Staunton (Aston Villa), Ian Harte (Leeds), Richard Dunne (Manchester City), Gary Breen (Coventry), Andy O'Brien (Newcastle), Gary Kelly (Leeds), Kenny Cunningham (Wimbledon), Steve Finnan (Fulham), Jason McAteer (Sunderland), Matt Holland (Ipswich), Mark Kinsella (Charlton), Kevin Kilbane (Sunderland), Steven Reid (Millwall), Colin Healy (Coventry), Rory Delap (Southampton), Niall Quinn (Sunderland), Robbie Keane (Leeds), Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace), Damien Duff (Blackburn), David Connolly (Wimbledon), Richard Sadlier (Millwall).