Xherdan Shaqiri's stay-away stance surprised Mick McCarthy.
But the Ireland boss won’t lose any sleep fretting about whether he returns for next month’s reverse game in Geneva.
Shaqiri has been a fringe player at Liverpool this season and rocked the Swiss camp last week by asking not to be picked for Thursday’s game in Dublin.
He wants to focus on his club career and nobody knows how long he intends parking international football.
“It did catch me unawares as I didn’t expect to hear he was concentrating on his club career,” said McCarthy.
“You can prepare to play whoever replaces him a bit better because he can do things off the cuff - you got that little bit of magic in him.
“But I wouldn’t underestimate the other players who step in for him. But he can produce moments of magic in games.”
And McCarthy added: “Whether he comes back in six months or two years, if he never comes back, it doesn’t really bother me..”
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