{"id":357499,"date":"2026-02-26T14:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/357499\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:53:06","slug":"evan-ferguson-to-miss-irelands-world-cup-playoff-against-czech-republic-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/357499\/","title":{"rendered":"Evan Ferguson to miss Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoff against Czech Republic \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> is planning to be without Evan Ferguson<\/a> for the World Cup playoff against the Czech Republic in Prague on March 26th. <\/p>\n

Ferguson returned to Brighton last week for medical assessment, having not featured for his loan club AS Roma since January 22nd due to repetitive ankle issues despite undergoing surgery last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be a challenge for Evan now, to regain fitness and match sharpness,\u201d Hallgr\u00edmsson told The Irish Times. \u201cHe is going to visit a specialist on Friday so we will know more then but it is looking unlikely that he will be with us in March at least. We need to be prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Ferguson\u2019s Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini highlighted four separate sprains, to the left and right ankles, since the 21-year-old joined the Serie A side last summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis season has been a test for him psychologically,\u201d said Hallgr\u00edmsson. \u201cHe looked really good in September. I\u2019d never seen him so lean. He was fit. Muscular. Definitely the lightest I\u2019d seen him since [2024]. The sharpest too. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a good sign going to Roma. I know they were training two times a day and that was new for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson has made 22 appearances for Roma, scoring five goals, and he netted three times in four World Cup qualifiers before missing the November ties against Portugal and Hungary when Troy Parrott\u2019s hat-trick in Budapest sent Ireland into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Parrott now looks certain to start as the lone striker when in Prague next month. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is tough because Adam Idah might have one game coming back from injury for Swansea [before the Czech match], and he won\u2019t start, so it is unlikely Adam will be ready. Johnny Kenny is not playing much for Bolton, so hopefully he will start and start scoring. We do not have many options up front from players who are flying at the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n

On replacing Josh Cullen in midfield, after the Burnley skipper tore his ACL in December, Hallgr\u00edmsson is equally concerned. <\/p>\n

\u201cJosh has been the anchor in the team. Now we need to find a solution in a critical area, especially playing away to a Czech team that are a really physical team, especially their midfielders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be tricky because, at the moment, honestly, there is not many players playing well or regularly in the position and this is not the time to be doing tests or taking risks with somebody who has not been with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

That appears to rule out Ireland captain Nathan Collins being redeployed from defence to midfield, as he did so effectively against England in November 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, whether it is Jason Knight, Jayson Molumby, Conor Coventry or Jack Taylor, we\u2019ll see. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the same situation in November. We\u2019d a lot of players not playing well, or not playing, or not scoring, but we still did pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2666 Growing up on a volcanic rock:<\/b> \u201cBoth my grandparents\u2019 houses went under the lava. I was six.\u201d \u2013 read the full interview with Hallgr\u00edmsson in this Saturday\u2019s Irish Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson is planning to be without Evan Ferguson for the World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,16756,17065,19,17,6634,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-357499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-evan-ferguson","10":"tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116137505813538390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}