O'Neill includes McCarthy in preliminary squad to face Wales

A thought spared for the player stuck in the middle would have been even nicer though.

Not only is O'Neill showing blatant disrespect to Everton FC's medical staff, but most of all, to James's long term health and fitness. If they play him when it's obvious he has an underlying long-term problem they are risking his future as a professional footballer.

McCarthy should be man enough to tell him that he is not fit and must share some of the blame for the situation by not having the guts to stand up to O'Neill. He should remember who pays his wages and it is not the Irish FA.

They need to really look at the amount of matches teams play in these groups thst never seem to involve anything other than part time dross making the numbers up and adding to the amount of games needed.

If he's injured and can't play then no problem but if he's not too bad then I'm sure he'll want to play. It's not as if he's crucial to Everton's season at the moment with him being 4th or 5th choice currently. It would be different if we were dependent on him for vital games.

O'Neil did it with Gibson, but he was out injured for 12 months due a cruciate liagament injury suffered on international duty when playing a second full game in 4 days for the ROI when not match fit.

He tries to disguise his irritant nature by having a bigger irritant alongside him. Roy Keane.

Enough said.

He's fit or he's not, full stop. Clubs give players diet sheets telling them what not to eat, won't let them take part in other risky sports/pastimes – but have to swallow this?

I know it works the other way sometimes, players with fake injuries at their club, that suddenly heal for the next match day... but surely there's a procedure... isn't there?

Steavey – do FIFA have some kind of power to compel the player?

Edit: compel the player to play based on their assessment, as opposed to attend?

A regulator could take appropriate enforcement action regardless of the wishes or judgement of the player involved if independent medical evidence confirmed the club's judgement.

Seems then, it's the player that makes the decision to respond to the call up? That's quite a pressure, more so for some personalities than others. If a player feels press-ganged by the likes of O'Neill and Keane at the risk of jeopardizing their international future, a patriotic calling separate to their pro' club career - well it's easy to see what can happen.

A dated and unsuitable system, a clash of two interests. Time for yet more bureaucracy in the form of properly independent medical assessment maybe; though that takes away clubs' options of playing their jokers.

I'd envision the HSE more likely to be involved in serious cases after the SHTF, it often works that way.

Not an easy one to resolve. Over to you James.

Often, individuals need protecting from themselves as well as protecting from others. The HSE work on the principle of avoidance of an injury, over taking action after the event.

Could be a can of worms if someone initiates something in this area of football but what's the answer? It's an incredibly amateur set up.

It would be interesting to get the HSE's view on the situation. The national headquarters of the HSE, Redgrave Court in Bootle, are about half a mile from Goodison.

Even more importantly, if the player himself knows he is risking prolonging his current injury, but doesn't seem to care for whatever reason he should expect and accept no sympathy from the manager of Everton.

So before blaming O'Neill (who I have always respected as a deep thinker in the football world) let us remember Baines playing on for most of a season with a gammy ankle, injections before games, eventually leading to a long rest and two operations.

The player has to have more sense, and if these managers really cared about them, then they would be more circumspect.

And sometimes you have to force managers to do the right thing, that's why they might need some form of policing from a regulator, to inject some common sense.

And if this did happen, the requirements set down by the regulator would take precedence over any rules from FIFA and the like, thereby cutting through a load of bullshit of the kind we see from FIFA.

And we must remember also that it is the clubs that pay the player vast sums of money, week-in & week-out, injured or not – for me, club vs country is no contest.

Oliver, I agree, it is the clubs who have the most to lose, and EFC have suffered with our Irish boys being particularly hit. I remember Fergie rarely allowing Giggs to play for Wales unless it was a big game-; Giggs always pulled out with an injury.

Perhaps it is typical of modern player power, that the clubs are finding it hard to restrict availability for these meaningless friendlies (not Ireland in this case). Who knows what is in the contracts of our players?

Sorry Martin, Lad.