Keane's withdrawal disrupts Republic plans

The day before match day and again the name on everyone's lips is Keane. In Saipan, Dublin, Moscow, Glasgow and now here – it has been the same for the Irish. Only this time it is Robbie, and not Roy.

By lunchtime in the Georgian capital, 8.30am back home, the Republic of Ireland's manager Brian Kerr was still not able to say for sure whether or not the young striker would be joining up with his squad following the death of his father.

Down at the Lokomotiv stadium – where today's game will be played – the lamp-posts were being painted, the phone lines installed and the first question asked by workmen and officials was: Is Keane playing? They had to wait another nine hours for the answer. Keane, whose father, Robert senior, died from cancer on Monday evening, while his son was playing for Tottenham Hotspur, and who was buried on Thursday, would not make it. But he will be in Tirana on Monday ahead of the second leg of this vital double-header.

"I know he has a great desire in his heart to play," Kerr said as he drew on his own personal experience of playing in a football match, when a schoolboy, soon after his own father died. "I thought about it in comparison to that. I played, but the match was not in Tbilisi. It's a lot different," he said. Keane told his manager, in a phone call during yesterday's Under-21 match, which the Irish drew, that he could not travel.

Although the circumstances are very different, and stir very different emotions, from the absence of the former captain who shares his surname, the uncertainty over Robbie Keane has affected proceedings. As has a spate of withdrawals which has deprived Kerr of probably three others from his starting line up.

"We have been pushed further back with the withdrawals and the difficulties with Robbie, which really is a difficulty," Kerr admitted. "All that has made it harder but I have not mentioned it to the players. I have just said 'let's get the job done, get the show back on the road'.

"I said they have been good enough to get through the most difficult group to get to the World Cup and played well there. Keep a slice of that and a slice of the passion and confidence and desire." Kerr also talked about the conditions encountered here. "Most people aren't too familiar with Georgia and there is probably a bit of a fear of the unknown about it for everybody," he said.

There is also the fear of the unknown for the new manager himself. This is only his second game in charge, and his first competitive fixture. Defeat and Ireland's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2004 – they are pointless after two games – are all but gone no matter the result against Albania next Wednesday. "If we don't get four points [from the two games] then we will need an extraordinary set of results," Kerr said. "Not so much for our last four games but for everyone else as well."

Kerr will not reveal his team until today but confirmed that Kenny Cunningham, returned from injury, is preferred to Matt Holland as captain. "I have spoken to Mattie about it and he accepts that fully," Kerr said. Keane's absence means Damien Duff will probably play up front, with Colin Healy in midfield.

Cunningham, 31, who has 44 caps, spoke of his pride. "But it is scant consolation if, come next September, we find ourselves six or seven points adrift of the top two sides in the group," he added.

Kerr said that the players had settled and were kept up until 2am on the first night, after a short sleep on arrival, to adjust to the time difference. "He got a few double takes from one or two of the players when that came up," Cunningham said. "But we were confined to the hotel." It is whether they will be sleepless after today's game that matters. Georgia, bottom of the group following a 4-1 defeat in Switzerland and the abandonment of their home game against Russia due to floodlight failure, are nevertheless a dangerous side and finished the last World Cup qualifying group strongly.

They are coached by Alexander Chivadze, one of the great players of Dinamo Tbilisi and the former Soviet Union. Georgi Kinkladze, expected to be restored after being blamed for the last defeat, has the highest profile among the players although the Rangers striker Shota Arveladze, if he can shake off an ankle injury, is the most dangerous while Dundee's Zurab Khizanishvili is suspended.

The match will be played at the home of Lokomotiv Tbilisi. It is a smaller venue than the better-known Boris Paichadze stadium but the facilities are deemed better – although the uneven pitch is hard and dry and did not meet with the approval of the Irish players after they trained on it.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (4-4-2; probable): Given (Newcastle Utd); Carr (Tottenham Hotspur), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Breen (West Ham Utd), O'Shea (Manchester Utd); Healy (Celtic), Kinsella (Aston Villa), Holland (Ipswich Town), Kilbane (Sunderland); Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Duff (Blackburn Rovers).

GEORGIA (3-4-1-2; probable): Lomaia (Lokomotiv Tbilisi); Khizanishvili, Shashiashvili, Amisulashvili (all Dynamo Tbilisi); Jamarauli (FC Zurich), Rekhviashvili (Torpedo Moscow), Nemsadze (Dundee), Kobiashvili (Freiburg); Kinkladze (Derby County); S Arveladze (Rangers), Demetradze (Metalurg Donetsk).

Referee: K Vassaras (Greece).