Robbie Keane had Irish fans fearing that another name was added to their growing list of injuries, after sitting out today’s training with an Achilles problem.

The 32 year old collided with Paul McShane at training yesterday but assistant coach Marco Tardelli insists there is no problem and that Ireland’s team captain will be fit for Ireland’s crunch qualifying game against Germany on Friday night.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Tardelli said, ‘It’s no problem. For Robbie, it’s just a knock.
Yesterday in training, Paul McShane was very hard. Robbie decided to stay and rest because it is better.’

Tardelli was just as adamant that Keane would be fit when speaking to RTE.ie. He said. ‘I spoke to the doctor and everything is okay. He needs to recover also after his trip,’ referring to Keane’s long flight from his home in Los Angeles, where he plays for MLS team LA Galaxy.

After losing stalwarts Richard Dunne, Kevin Doyle, Glenn Whelan, Sean St Ledger and James McClean to injury in the last few months, the last thing Ireland needed was to lose their captain and record goal scorer too. Keane scored his 54th international goal in the last qualifying game against Kazakhstan and will make his 121st appearance for Ireland on Friday against the Germans.