McCarthy has Irish competing for places

The Middlesbrough defender Curtis Fleming and the Leeds United midfielder Stephen McPhail have been included in the Republic of Ireland's squad for the World Cup qualifying Group Two match against Cyprus on Saturday.

Fleming and McPhail were summoned to the Irish team hotel here after both the Millwall midfielder Steven Reid and Southampton's Rory Delap were ruled out by respective toe and hamstring injuries. The 33-year-old Fleming won the last of his 10 caps in a scoreless draw with Mexico in a friendly in 1998; McPhail won the last of his four caps in the 2-2 draw with Croatia at Lansdowne Road in August.

With Gary Kelly serving a one-match suspension, Mick McCarthy was unable to name Stephen Carr, Gary Doherty and Damien Duff in his original 22-man squad because of injuries. Richard Dunne withdrew at the weekend with a calf injury picked up in Manchester City's 4-0 defeat by Wimbledon. Kenny Cunningham, who played his first match for the Dons this season in that game, was called up in place of Dunne.

The Irish manager has yet to decide whether to start with any of the four players on yellow cards from previous qualifying games: Robbie Keane, Mark Kinsella, Jason McAteer and Cunningham. "I want there to be competition for places for the Cyprus game and I won't be telling anyone of my decision until I have spoken to the players," McCarthy said. However it seems likely that the quartet will be rested for the play-off games on 10 and 15 November.