Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has praised the performances of Liverpool ‘keeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
Kelleher is currently out injured, with the source of his injury a bone of contention between Liverpool and Ireland. But prior to his issue, Kelleher’s last game was for his country against Ukraine in June. And speaking via RTE, Kenny praised the Liverpool player’s ‘terrific’ display during that game.
“If Caoimhin tweaked something in the game against Ukraine it wasn’t evident by his performance. He performed very well and done everything really well,” said the manager.
“I honestly wasn’t aware of him being injured at that time. This is Dr Alan Byrne’s last game involved obviously. He has a reputation from being involved in 200 internationals. They always have medical notes on every injury, extensive notes, and we have no medical notes on Caoimhin from that camp. There’s no medical notes. If he did tweak something, we weren’t aware of it.
“He played terrifically well in the game but it’s just one of those things. We’ll all move on.”
Kelleher still not ready to return just yet
There is a certain element of mystery about what happened to Kelleher during June’s international break.
The 23-year-old hasn’t played since then, having missed all of Liverpool’s pre-season and beginning of the campaign.
Speaking at the end of July, Jurgen Klopp insinuated that the injury had been missed by Ireland’s medical staff at the time.
“Yeah, [Kelleher] felt something after the international game and everybody, the medical department there, told him it’s fine and will be good after a holiday,” the manager said via liverpoolfc.com.
“He came back and first training [session] felt it again. We checked it and it was not good so I think Caoimh will be another two, three weeks and then he should be fine.”
As it turns out, we’re six weeks on from Klopp’s quotes and Kelleher still hasn’t featured in the Liverpool matchday squad.
He was pictured during a training session recently, so the hope is that he’ll be back and ready after the latest international break.
In Kelleher’s absence, Liverpool fortunately haven’t need him. Alisson has had a good start to the season and Adrian managed well in July’s Community Shield.
Still, it would be nice to have Liverpool’s number 2 back.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
