Parrott fitness update as Ireland prepare to fly to Luxembourg
One big takeaway from Friday's draw with Senegal is the number of options available to Heimir Hallgrímsson in all positions, including the wide and central attacking areas.
WIth Chiedozie Ogbene and Sammie Szmodics out injured, Kasey McAteer and Ryan Manning both stepped up.
Meanwhile, the Ireland boss could afford to start Evan Ferguson and Troy Parrott on the bench against the 2021 African Cup of Nations winners.
Hallgrímsson was pleased to get the opportunity to blood some relatively inexperienced players, while he also issued an update on Troy Parrott's health.
The AZ Alkmaar striker was an unused substitute against Senegal, having spent all day Wednesday in his hotel room nursing an illness.
'When you do friendlies and give players a chance you will get answers,' said Hallgrímsson.
'Not all of them will be positive answers but you need to have answers and the players who came in now did a good job.
'They have rocked the boat a bit, so the players watching will think, 'Oh, this one is coming'.
'So that is healthy competition and we need to have more than one option, because if you are injured in September you might miss out for the whole tournament and we need to be prepared for that as well.'
As for Parrott, Hallgrímsson expects him to be available to play against Luxembourg.
'When a player is sick, we're not doing him a favour playing him if he's 80 percent,' explained Hallgrímsson.
'We would obviously like to play him fully fit and give him the chance to show himself when he is fully fit. We will see him play (against Luxembourg).'
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Irish Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
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Parrott fitness update as Ireland prepare to fly to Luxembourg
One big takeaway from Friday's draw with Senegal is the number of options available to Heimir Hallgrímsson in all positions, including the wide and central attacking areas. WIth Chiedozie Ogbene and Sammie Szmodics out injured, Kasey McAteer and Ryan Manning both stepped up. Meanwhile, the Ireland boss could afford to start Evan Ferguson and Troy Parrott on the bench against the 2021 African Cup of Nations winners. Hallgrímsson was pleased to get the opportunity to blood some relatively inexperienced players, while he also issued an update on Troy Parrott's health. The AZ Alkmaar striker was an unused substitute against Senegal, having spent all day Wednesday in his hotel room nursing an illness. 'When you do friendlies and give players a chance you will get answers,' said Hallgrímsson. 'Not all of them will be positive answers but you need to have answers and the players who came in now did a good job. 'They have rocked the boat a bit, so the players watching will think, 'Oh, this one is coming'. 'So that is healthy competition and we need to have more than one option, because if you are injured in September you might miss out for the whole tournament and we need to be prepared for that as well.' As for Parrott, Hallgrímsson expects him to be available to play against Luxembourg. 'When a player is sick, we're not doing him a favour playing him if he's 80 percent,' explained Hallgrímsson. 'We would obviously like to play him fully fit and give him the chance to show himself when he is fully fit. We will see him play (against Luxembourg).'
