Brady a genuine option at left back

At the start of this long international week, Martin O'Neill spoke of the many big decisions he had to make around team selection for this Sunday's massive Euro 2016 qualifier against Poland – with Hull City winger Robbie Brady at the heart of a potentially match-changing decision.

It is a week where Shay Given is the closest he has been to ousting David Forde for a competitive game since returning to the international fold in September; where there is debate over whether or not skipper Robbie Keane should be restored to the starting line-up after being benched for the November defeat to Scotland; and where O'Neill has James McCarthy, Glen Whelan, David Meyler, Stephen Quinn, Wes Hoolahan and Harry Artur as options in the middle of the park – and he has those options despite losing Jeff Hendrick (hip) and Darron Gibson (groin) to injury.

Yet in a week of big decisions, it looks increasingly likely that the biggest decision will be made in the backline as Stephen Ward fights a seemingly losing battle to recover from an ankle injury.

The Burnley left-back only returned from a fractured ankle earlier this month when he appeared as a late substitute in the Clarets' shock 1-0 win over Manchester City, but he wasn't even in the matchday squad for their 2-0 defeat to Southampton the following week. The 29 year old has yet to train with the Ireland squad this week either.

From the moment the squad assembled at Gannon Park for their first training sessions, O'Neill has been less optimistic than he wanted to come across in his assessment of Ward, his first choice left-back when available. While O'Neill said that the Portmarnock native believed “maybe two or three days on, he'll be okay,” the Ireland boss also revealed that Ward was set to go for a minor operation on his ankle to rectify a problem with screws inserted during a previous procedure.

Updates on Ward since have yielded little in the way of improvement, with O'Neill saying on Tuesday that if the game was on the next day, the former Bohemians striker would be “a struggle.” O'Neill's assistant Roy Keane said on Wednesday that James McClean – who is suffering from a bruised bone in his foot – was looking “more hopeful” for the game than either Ward or Gibson.

The Everton midfielder has since returned to his club for treatment. Ward's situation could end up the same way, meaning there is a position to be filled at left-back – with winger Robbie Brady a surprise contender after he excelled in the role and scored twice during the 4-1 friendly win over the USA back in November.

The safe option would be to break up the John O'Shea-Marc Wilson pairing by moving the Stoke City defender into a left-back role in which he is equally as comfortable. That would open up a hole at the heart of the defence which would be most likely filled by either Derby County's Richard Keogh or Aston Villa's Ciaran Clark.

In theory, Keogh would seem to be the front-runner in such a scenario as he started alongside O'Shea in the 1-0 defeat to Scotland – a game Wilson missed due to a hamstring injury. Keogh's Derby teammate Cyrus Christie, though a right-back, would also come into the equation as a make-shift replacement for Ward.

Yet when given the choice, O'Neill has opted for O'Shea-Wilson at the heart of his defence in three of the four qualifiers so far and may prefer to focus on filling the left-back slot instead. Christie only has one cap at this level and O'Neill may not wish to hand him his competitive debut out of position, while the former Celtic manager already has form for asking midfielders to play in defence in this campaign – Brady's Hull teammate David Meyler started both the 1-1 draw with Germany and the 7-0 drubbing of Gibraltar at right-back in the absence of Seamus Coleman.

Brady comes into the game having recovered much earlier than expected from a calf injury picked up in strange circumstances when the former Manchester United man fell down a hole at Hull's training ground at the start of this month. Six weeks was the original recovery time set by the Tigers, but he has defied expectations and now could start this Sunday.

O'Neill was pleased with how Brady came through the first session on Monday, adding, “Of course, absolutely right to think in terms of match fitness, the amount of football that he's played – particularly in the last three or four weeks – that might present a problem, but overall he's a pretty fit lad. He's a very good player, I think we said this after the USA that he definitely would come into contention.”

As the left-back situation has become more of an issue, O'Neill stated outright later in the week that he “wouldn't have a problem playing him [Brady] in that position. Brady has come through again today. Since his calf injury he hasn't done too much, but it's encouraging.

“I think he's a fine player. I think he has played at left-back...he's capable of doing a job if selected. He's obviously better going forward, I think...but he isn't naive defensively, I hope.”

Brady has played quite a bit in the position for Hull in the last few seasons, with club teammate Stephen Quinn confident that the 23 year old is more than capable of transferring that form to the international stage if required.

“Yeah, that was the season we got promoted from the Championship. He played most of his games there [at left back] and he was a real threat that season,” Quinn said in response to a question about Brady's credentials. “At the start of this season now he's starting to do it again, at left-wing back, and I think it suits him coming onto the play. Him and Seamus Coleman, they're big threats from the wing-back [positions].”

Of Brady's free-kick against the USA, Quinn said, ““Yeah, it was a beauty. I've seen that over the last three years. Robbie, he's a free-kick specialist and [at] set-pieces, it's great to have him – he's just been practicing out there [on the Aviva Stadium pitch]. He's looking good, like I said, I think he'll have a strong chance of starting the game.”

Keane spoke at length about the importance of set-pieces after the squad had trained at the Aviva Stadium and dropped a huge indication that Brady's dead ball ability might just be giving him the edge in terms of the thinking behind O'Neill's team selection.

“Set-pieces at the highest level are vital, you see a lot of big moments in the big matches are [decided by] set-plays,” said Keane. “A lot of it will depend on delivery so we're hoping one or two lads are fit from that side of it [perhaps a reference to Brady], but obviously set-pieces do decide a lot of big games and that could be the case on Sunday.

“We're on about set-pieces, small margins. We might need a player to lash one in from 30 yards and there might be one or two lads who can – a Robbie Brady free or whatever,” added Keane later on.

All that said, while Brady has experience of playing in the position at club and, briefly, international level, many will question the logic of starting a player known for his attacking traits at left-back in such a crucial qualifier. Given mentioned earlier in the week that his Villa teammate Alan Hutton – who started at right-back for Scotland in their 2-2 draw with the Poles in October – had warned him “their two wingers are very tricky, very lively on the ball.”

So if Brady is to start at left-back on Sunday, he may need to restrict his attacking instincts to just set-pieces as he could be busy trying to handle Polish forays down the right flank.