Reid Withdrawn

Mark Hughes has pulled Stephen Reid out of the Republic of Ireland squad today. He was angry that he or Blackburn were not even asked about the players availability. Reid has only featured in a few reserve matches playing half the 1st or 2nd half of games. This is another blunder by the FAI who need to convince the Irish public that they are capable of running Irish football.

Hughes told the Blackburn Website

"There's no way Steven can play because he's just not ready yet,".

"The guy has been out for 14 months with two different injuries and he has yet to play a first team game for us so there's no way he can play for his country.



"You can't rush people back when they've been out for as long as Steven has. I don't want to set Steven specific targets because if he doesn't hit them it seems like a set-back.

"He's making good progress and you can see that he's getting stronger with every game he plays, but he probably needs another couple of matches yet before we can start thinking about throwing him back in."