Jack Byrne is fit to feature for Shamrock Rovers in their key Europa League showdown with Shkupi in North Macedonia tomorrow.
But midfielder Chris McCann, who was a standout in last week’s first-leg 3-1 win, has been ruled out with a calf injury.
The former Burnley skipper limped off midway through the second-half in Tallaght and Shkupi only got their foothold when he was missing.
Byrne hasn’t started a game for the Hoops since May 23 as he has been dogged by calf and now hip flexor / stomach injuries, and made just one appearance in that time.
But the Ireland midfielder only narrowly missed out on a role in last week’s win over Shkupi and is ready to play tomorrow.
Rovers will secure group stage football - in the Europa Conference League anyway - if they see out the job.
But they have designs on going deep into the Europa League proper with Qarabag or Ferencvaros waiting in the playoff round next week.
As it stands, frustrated Rovers fans won’t be able to see tomorrow’s clash with Shkupi as it has not been picked up by Irish TV.
And there has been no breakthrough in securing a streaming service either, although Shamrock Rovers have not yet given up hope.
Speaking in Skopje today, where temperatures have hit 31 degrees, Hoops boss Stephen Bradley said: “Chris will be out but Jack will be back.
“Thankfully our travel was good, flight, hotel, everything was perfect and a lot better than what we had in our previous trip (to Bulgaria), which is great.”
Getting through tomorrow’s game is worth at least €3.3m to Shamrock Rovers and Bradley knows what is on the line.
“We're one game away from it,” he said of the group stage certainty.
“We know it's a tough one but we've worked hard to get ourselves into this position and it's a nice position to be in.
“We need to go up a few levels to win the game tomorrow night.
“Alan Mannus was fantastic last week - he made some really important saves, too many important saves for our liking so we've got to make sure that we go up a few levels.
“We've got to go and attack them. They've shown previously they can score goals at home and we saw they were dangerous in the second-half in Tallaght.
“They showed their quality in that moment and tomorrow I'd imagine they’ll bring that from the first minute so we've got to make sure we go up the levels.”
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