ANTHONY STOKES’ RECENT form has led Celtic manager Neil Lennon to suggest that the 23-year-old deserves a recall to the Irish squad.
With Kevin Doyle suspended, and both Robbie Keane and Shane Long unlikely to be fully fit for the upcoming games, Stokes has been tipped to be included in the squad.
And Lennon believes his striker is more than capable of filling the void caused by Ireland’s striker crisis.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
“He is showing great maturity and he’s shown he can do it at the higher level.“He just needs to get some consistency in his domestic form.”
And in addition to Stokes, Ireland have other credible options up front, despite the potential loss of arguably their three best attackers.
Leon Best, like Stokes, was ignored by Trapattoni during the last squad selection. However, the Newcastle man’s excellent form of late may yet convince Trapattoni to take a gamble on him.
Meanwhile, both Simon Cox and Jonathan Walters produced good performances in Ireland’s most recent qualifier against Armenia, and so Trap may opt to stick with the tried and trusted.
Alternatively, given how Ireland were overrun in midfield away to Russia, he may disown his preferred 4-4-2 formation and choose to play a lone striker.
So assuming Robbie Keane and Shane Long are unable to feature, who do you think should start up front for Ireland in the first leg away to Estonia?
