Denise O'Sullivan is a doubt for the Republic of Ireland's Euro 2025 qualifier against Sweden at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night.
O’Sullivan hasn't played since awkwardly twisting her knee in action for North Carolina Courage against Kansas City in the NWSL almost three weeks ago.
The star midfielder has been on a modified training programme in Ireland camp this week as she looks to return in time for the visit of the world No 6-ranked side, but head coach Eileen Gleeson admitted a decision has yet to be made on O'Sullivan's inclusion.
"Yeah, there'll be late calls," said Gleeson.
"We always knew (O'Sullivan) was going to be on a modified training programme. We’re aware, we knew we would be (waiting), we knew there was an injury before she came in.
"We’re in the same position we were before we came into the camp with Denise.
"She has been in with us from the start but she's been on a modified programme so she’s a little bit separate from the group at times, so we’re still working towards having (her and Katie McCabe) on the field."
McCabe is much more ready to come into the fray having returned from Australia last Sunday. The captain played 90 minutes for Arsenal against the A-League All Stars in an end-of-season friendly in Melbourne a week ago, and has been adhering to specific sleep patterns to help her overcome jet lag.
The Dubliner trained fully on Wednesday without any issues.
There's almost 30,000 tickets sold for the Girls in Green's return to Lansdowne Road. Having lost their opening two qualifiers to France and England, Gleeson is desperate to land a blow on Peter Gerhardsson's powerful Swedish outfit.
"When we look back on the France and England games, there are points where we feel we were a little bit passive, particularly the first half of English game," said Gleeson.
"It's never the intention to be passive, it is about being structured without the ball and if that has to be deep, you can still be deep and aggressive so we wanted to focus on that part.
"It is a home game, we want to bring the game to them as well too. As a team, we want to be assertive and aggressive and have much more high quality further up the pitch as well."
The Swedes are without some big names for the trip to Dublin. Prolific striker Stina Blackstenius, centre-back Amanda Ilestedt and midfielder Lina Hurtig all faced the Irish in the 1-1 World Cup qualifier draw back in 2022. The trio are absent this time around, as is Vfl Wolfsburg attacker Rebecka Blomqvist.
"There's no getting away from the fact that they’ve lost Stina Blackstenius," Gleeson added.
"But we know the players that potentially replace them will be of a similar ilk. We won’t be underestimating that if you lose a big striker it’s going to have an impact on Sweden. We keep focusing on ourselves.
"We would think Sweden will play in a very similar way regardless of what striker they have or don’t have."
Having done respectably well against the English and French, Gleeson's team now must try to find a way to pose a genuine threat going forward, and the manager is positive about their approach to the game.
"We've had a really good week, the mood in the camp is good, the players are in good form, they have come in off the back of their programmes or their seasons, looking forward to this camp, right from the Monday. The vibes have been good, a lot of positivity."
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