02-06-2025
Quinn and Mannion "a doubt" for Ireland's crunch Nations League game against Slovenia
LUCY QUINN AND Aoife Mannion have emerged as 'a doubt' for Republic of Ireland's crunch Nations League clash with Slovenia in Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow.
Quinn has a bug while Mannion's issue is related to playing overload. Neither have been ruled out with Mannion participating in today's training session, while Quinn's situation continues to be monitored. Ireland manager Carla Ward says she is 'hopeful' that Mannion will be available to play but admits that she is less confident about Quinn's fitness.
The pair started in Ireland's 2-1 victory over Türkiye last Friday with Mannion coming off at half-time for Caitlin Hayes while Quinn played 74 minutes before she was replaced by Megan Campbell.
Ireland host Group B2 toppers Slovenia at the Cork venue tomorrow night where Ward's outfit must must win by four goals or more to usurp them and secure automatic promotion to League A. The runners-up will go to the play-offs in October.
'It's an overload more than anything,' Ward replied when asked about the nature of Mannion's injury today.
Advertisement
'She's had a really long season. If you look at the last couple of years, she's played more minutes this season than probably the last few seasons. She's finished a season and gone straight out to Portugal to play in the Sevens [World Sevens Tournament] and it's managing her load. Sometimes people maybe don't understand that part of it.
'We're hopeful that she'll be fit. We'll see today how she gets on but she's massively important for what we want to do and the way we want to play.'
Commenting on Quinn's condition, Ward added:
'Maybe less so [hopeful] just because she's had a bug for a couple of days and we all know how that feels. We'll see. She's in good hands with the medical team. We'll have a look at her tonight and tomorrow and see how she feels.'
Ireland were forced to rally from 1-0 down in Istanbul last Friday, ultimately coming away with a 2-1 victory through an own goal, and a late Emily Murphy effort. The result keeps their Nations League promotion hopes alive, but Ward said after the game that Ireland need a better performance against Slovenia, if they are to reach that four-goal target.
After reflecting on their performance over the last few days, Ward says she still feels the same.
'I think the gaps at times were too big. I think we needed to start better. I think we were sloppy at times, but I think that we all felt that, and on reflection [we had] similar thoughts.
'We know where we need to tidy up. Like I said to you, we've got an ambitious group of players, players that constantly want to be better. Those conversations become easy because they answer the questions for you.'
Ward declined to divulge if her side will have a different tactical set-up for Slovenia. Their previous meeting in February ended in a 4-0 drubbing for Ireland, where Slovenia manager Sasa Kolman alluded that he knew how Ireland were going to set up.
'I's not hard to look at a Carla Ward team over the last eight years and work out how I like to play the game,' she responded when she was reminded of his remarks.
'So, yeah, I think it was… he can comment all he likes. It just shows that he's probably had a look at my career, which I can take a little bit of confidence from.'
