Kev Kilbane suffered a knock on his ankle during Saturday's training session in Chiba City, but according to Mick he should be fit for Tuesday's final Group E match with Saudi Arabia. As a precaution he sat out the second half of today’s training session. If we cast our minds back, Kilbane also suffered an ankle knock in the Republic of Ireland's final warm-up game against S Hiroshima two weeks ago, but that cleared up ahead of the World Cup opener against Cameroon, and if fit, he is likely to face Saudi Arabia.
And brilliant news from the magnificent seven, as all of our previously injured players - Shay Given (hip), Steve Finnan (groin), Gary Breen (calf), Stan (hamstring), Jason McAteer (knee), Mark Kinsella (knee) and Matt Holland (rib), all took part in training and didn't suffer any recurrences of the injuries they were suffering from.
Its fair to say that the Saudis will not be going home without a fight, as no country would wish to return to their homeland without so much as a point in their respective group. But the situation looks even more grim for the Asians now, as reports from their camp now report that they will be without two of their main strikers Obeid Al-Dossari and Sami Al-Jaber, when they take on Ireland in Yokohama next Tuesday. Al-Jaber is the biggest name in Saudi football and Al-Dossari is one of the top scorers for the national side, as well as his club side Al Ahli and scored an amazing 10 goals in Saudi Arabia's 12 qualifying matches.
Al-Jaber, who announced that he would retire after the tournament, had to undergo an appendix operation in Japan. While Al-Dossary has to undergo an operation on ligaments in his left knee which he injured in the first-half of the 1-0 defeat by Cameroon last Thursday. So ahead of our game on Tuesday, heres how the Table stands
Group E------P------W------D------L------F------A------PTS
Germany------2------1------1------0------9------1------4
Cameroon-----2------1------1------0------2------1------4
Republic-----2------0------2------0------2------2------2
Saudi--------2------0------0------2------0------9------0
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