U-17 BOSS IS BEING LEFT TO SWEAT..

COLIN O’BRIEN will have to sweat it out over the availability of key players for the U17 World Cup. Ireland have qualified for the finals in Qatar from November 3-27 and several members of his latest squad play senior football in the League of Ireland. Chief among them are rising Shamrock Rovers duo Michael Noonan and Victor Ozhianvuna, who are both 16. But the World Cup falls outside a traditional FIFA international window, so clubs are not obliged to release players. And it means Ireland U17 boss O’Brien will be relying on the goodwill of managers, with the final round of games on November 1 and the FAI Cup final on November 9. Noonan has been in good goal-scoring form for Rovers of late and Ozhianvuna who is on Arsenal’s radar - has been a regular in first-team squads. But Rovers boss Stephen Bradley insists it is too far from the World Cup to be making calls or promises on player availability. “Look, we’ll wait until we come to that and see where everything lies,” he said yesterday. “There is no point in trying to predict what will be at that moment in time. “Right now it’s just about focusing on what’s in front of us.”