GIOVANNI Trapattoni will be hoping to get lucky once again as he sweats over the fitness of two of his defenders ahead of the Euro 2012 play-off against Estonia next month.
The Ireland manager's plans for the November 12 trip to Tallinn took a series of blows at the weekend as John O'Shea hobbled off with a recurrence of his hamstring injury in the first-half of Sunderland's Premier League draw with Aston Villa on Saturday.
The Waterford man is almost certain to miss the play-off first leg as a result, and Trap's weekend went from bad to worse after centre-back Darren O'Dea was also taken off in the first half of Leeds' 1-1 Championship draw with Cardiff with a serious case of concussion.
With Kevin Doyle suspended and Shane Long battling to be fit for the play-offs while nursing knee and fibia injuries following a tackle from Aston Villa's Alan Hutton last week, the latest spate of injury woes will weaken Trap's hand further going into next month's must-win games.
There was, however, some good news for the Italian with the news that Robbie Keane played 82 minutes of LA Galaxy's MLS Conference play-off win over New York Red Bulls last night.