Loanee defender Darren O’Dea will start for the Republic of Ireland when they take on Norway in a friendly at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Wednesday (Sky Sports One, 7.30pm). The on-loan Celtic man, who will partner Manchester United’s John O’Shea at the centre of the defence, will win his third full cap.

It will be O’Dea’s first game since undergoing a knee operation a month ago. The surgery had initially been expected to keep the 23-year-old out of action for six weeks.

Several other Town players could also win caps on Wednesday. Tamás Priskin and Márton Fülöp are with Hungary for their friendly with Lithuania in Budapest.

Gareth McAuley has withdrawn from the full Northern Ireland squad facing Morocco in a friendly due to the achilles tendinitis, which is set to keep him out for another couple of weeks, but Josh Carson and Caolan Lavery are in the Northern Irish U21s for their friendly in Scotland.

Defender Troy Brown has received his first U21 call from Wales for their friendly against Austria.

Republic of Ireland: Given (Manchester City); Kelly (Fulham), O'Shea (Manchester United), O'Dea (Ipswich Town), Cunningham (Leicester City); Lawrence (Portsmouth), Fahey (Birmingham City), Whelan (Stoke City), Duff (Fulham), Long (Reading), Doyle (Wolves).

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

brian_a_mul added 14:58 - Nov 16 Congrats Darren, best of luck. Please dont come back injured!!
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neilanddon added 16:33 - Nov 16 So he is fit enough to play international football against Norway as a FRIENDLY, but is not avbailable to play 2 very important home games in which we desperately needed him, what a joke!!! KEANO OUT!!!
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Sindre94 added 16:44 - Nov 16 nice! Im norwegian and hope the score will be 0-0 :D
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RetroBlue added 16:54 - Nov 16 So O'Dea starts for Ireland . Great ! So we pay this loanees wages and he's hardly kicked a ball for the Club , yet is now fit enough to suanter off for International duties , no doubt to get re injured and not be available for us again on saturday . We have crippling injuries - maybe these players who seemingly "bob along" at the club should start earning their vastly over-inflated wages !!!

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whoppit added 17:06 - Nov 16 10-0 Ireland vs Sweden !!!
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kerryblue added 17:40 - Nov 16 Im sure if Roy Keane or the club could have done anything about not allowing him play they would have but as 1/we are not his parent club and 2/he is now fit just having returned from his operation there isnt much we can do but hope he returns fit and is back in our team at the weekend having gained his first 90 mins football after injury,before which he was one of our better players this season.

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Mungo added 18:17 - Nov 16 Annoyed that he is in line to start when he hasn't been fit enough to play for town, after getting injured on international duty last time! Needless attitude from the FAI given this is a friendly.
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bluelady added 19:01 - Nov 16 The club did challenge.his attendance so you can't blame Roy for this one!
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RetroBlue added 19:33 - Nov 16 I wasnt !
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Mark added 19:39 - Nov 16 I notice that O'Dea will play for Ireland at centre-back, his proper position. When we already have Delaney, Smith, McAuley, Brown and Eastman I would have thought the money could be better spent in other areas of the pitch, as O'Dea's wages must be high.
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itfc1981 added 20:00 - Nov 16 Being fussy I know, but it counts as a Celtic cap.
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PhilTWTD added 21:49 - Nov 16 Further to some of the comments, I don't think the club were too annoyed at O'Dea going away as long as he got a game. As of Friday's press conference Keane felt he wasn't ready to play a game for us as he needed to get a match under his belt first. That game would either have been in the reserves or in Ireland's friendly. I suspect that but for injuries to a number of other Irish players he would have stayed here and played in the reserves.

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Calmingwind added 10:03 - Nov 17 @ Mark he was brought on early in the season when delainy was still a way off becoming fit solid 110% defender i like him
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itfc1981 added 11:08 - Nov 17 O'Dear
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I_8_NARWICH added 18:39 - Nov 17 So he can start for Ireland but he's not fit enough to play for us, how on earth does that work? I mean how sh*t is Irelands squad if they have to play a player who hasnt even kicked a ball for us for about 2 months. just hope that he comes back unscaved because we really need our defenders right now expecially without McAuley and Kennedy out, we need all of the players we have right now!

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tom_the_blue added 16:17 - Nov 18 injured AGAIN
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