No Place For Stephen Ireland As Trapattoni Names 25-Man Ireland Squad

Republic of Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, today named his squad for the crucial up coming qualifier against Georgia at Croke Park.

Serious rumours throughout the week suggested that Manchester City star midfielder Stephen Ireland was about to make a return for the boys in green.

Ireland has not lined out for his national side since the "Grannygate" affair when he claimed both of his grandmothers had died in order to leave international duty and return to his girlfriend who had suffered a miscarriage.

Since then Ireland has claimed he was bullied by fellow Irish team members over his supposed hair transplant and has refused to return to the international line-up.

However, a new Stephen Ireland has emerged this season for the Eastlands club. While throughout the summer all the talk was of the City takeover and arrival of Robinho, Ireland returned to training early and his effort has paid off with the Irishman being one of City's shining lights.

Certain talk from both camps suggested that Ireland would be included in the 25-man squad named today by the Republic's Italian manager.

Sadly, Ireland's name was once again not to be found on the Irish team sheet.

Another name also omitted from the list is Sunderland's Andy Reid.

Reid has yet to play a single second under Trapattoni despite the calls for his inclusion from Irish fans and media alike.

While Reid has fallen out of favour at the Stadium of Light in recent weeks, he is one of the better passers of the ball available to the Irish set-up and in an interview with an Irish tabloid claimed he would pay to play for his country.

It appears two things are preventing Andy Reid for lining out for Ireland. First off, Trapattoni is stubborn in sticking to his "schema", and with Steven Reid out injured it is one that is benefiting Stoke's Glenn Whelan and Manchester United's Darren Gibson.

Secondly, Trappatoni is a man that doesn't suffer fools easily. Andy Reid's refusal to stop a sing song in a hotel in Germany seems to have rubbed the Irish manager up the wrong way and it'll seem highly unlikely that Andy Reid will feature in any of the Italian's future plans.

The squad named by Trapattoni is as follows:

Goalkeepers

Shay Given
Dean Kiely
Keiren Westwood

Defenders

Alex Bruce
Damien Delaney
John O'Shea
Kevin Foley
Paul McShane
Richard Dunne
Stephen Kelly
Steve Finnan
Kevin Kilbane

Midfielders

Aiden McGeady
Damien Duff
Darron Gibson
Glenn Whelan
Keith Andrews
Liam Miller
Stephen Hunt
Andy Keogh

Forwards

Caleb Folan
Kevin Doyle
Robbie Keane
Shane Long
Noel Hunt

Republic of Ireland play Georgia on 11 February at Croke Park.