Boss Roy Keane is hopeful that defender Darren O’Dea will be back from Glasgow today in time for Sunday’s East Anglian derby at Norwich. The on-loan Celtic man returned to Scotland on Tuesday to be with his girlfriend, who is close to giving birth to their first child.
Keane said: "We’re hoping that Darren will be back on Saturday but we’ve not seen him all week. We saw him Tuesday but he’s been up in Glasgow since then.
"There’s no guarantee that he’ll be here. As far as I’m aware he’s sitting by a hospital bed. I just hope his girlfriend’s OK, has the baby and he can get down here.”
Keane says this type of thing can happen with loan players: "That’s a problem when you bring a loan player in. His girlfriend’s up in Glasgow and we wouldn’t expect her to move down when she’s heavily pregnant.
"If Darren misses Sunday, he misses Sunday. We’ve got to understand and respect that, I might have my own opinions on it, but that’s the way it is.”
Keane says he wasn’t able to take time off for the birth of his first child: "I missed the birth of my first daughter as I was at the 1994 World Cup, but she’s not held it against me! I was in a bar in Florida somewhere!”
O’Dea is likely to start at left-back on Sunday if he's back in time, although Keane has said he sees the Ireland international as amongst his options at right centre-half with Gareth McAuley out for two months having undergone achilles surgery.
Photo: ITFC