May 25, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12,1423

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TOKYO, May 24: Two more players headed home without kicking a World Cup ball on Friday — one nursing a broken foot, the other a bruised ego — as FIFA named the official squads for the 32 finalists.

With the dust from his extraordinary bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy barely settled, Irish captain Roy Keane was reported to have boarded a private jet and flown back to England, possibly taking Ireland’s tournament hopes with him.

Distraught fans in Dublin spoke of wearing black armbands, an item that also would not have been out of place in England’s injury-ravaged camp.

In a sickening coincidence for their Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, midfielder Danny Murphy was ruled out of the May 31 to June 30 tournament with a broken second metatarsal bone in his left foot — exactly the same injury as captain David Beckham, himself doubtful for the crucial opening clash against Sweden.

FA spokesman Paul Newman told Reuters: “He (Murphy) is out of the World Cup. The scan showed that he has fractured his left foot, the second metatarsal — the same as David Beckham.” With the opening match between France and Senegal just a week away, the pressure was raised a notch as FIFA named the official squads of 23 players.

Until the first match, injured players can still be replaced by reinforcements from home — in England’s case Trevor Sinclair, who was set for another long-haul flight back to Japan after making the journey home earlier this week.

All teams had to lodge their squads by midnight on Tuesday, meaning that Murphy and Keane were still among the 736 players listed.

The squad list is the largest ever for a World Cup finals after FIFA’s decision to increase squads by one player from 22 to 23 for these finals.

The decision was taken because, by tradition, most teams name three goalkeepers. To allow for cover for each of the 10 outfield players, a total of 23 players are needed.

In another unprecedented step, FIFA has allowed Argentina a dispensation to drop the number 10 from their squad. The Argentinians wanted to “retire” the shirt worn by their former captain Diego Maradona.

Making things worse for Ireland, they will not be able to fly in a replacement for Keane, since only seriously injured players can be swapped.

The BBC reported that the fiery 30-year-old left the Pacific island of Saipan on a plane laid on by his English premier league club Manchester United.

Keane said he had no regrets about the fierce verbal attack he made on McCarthy on Thursday, which led to his shock axing from the squad, but that was not the case for most of his countrymen. Irish soccer fans loaded the switchboards of radio and television phone-in shows to express their anger and dismay at the talismanic captain’s abrupt exit.

“It’s black armband time,” said Daire O’Brien, presenter on Dublin’s NewsTalk FM.

They will find little sympathy with McCarthy who told the London Evening Standard, he would quit if Keane was returned to the party.

“I took Roy Keane back once this week. I will not take him back a second time. As long as I am in charge of the Ireland team he will not play for us. After what he said to me the other night, I could not tolerate his return to the squad,” said McCarthy.

“Earlier this week, I listened to other people tell me that he wanted to reverse his decision and come back into the fold first time round. This time he has no chance.

“I am in charge of team affairs and if it ever happens that someone else tries to force a player on me, I quit.”

For England, Murphy was the latest in a long casualty list that is casting serious doubt on the 1966 champions’ chances. As well as Beckham, midfielder Kieron Dyer is a serious doubt and Nicky Butt only returned to training on Friday. Injured midfield star Steven Gerrard never even made it to Japan.

But defender Rio Ferdinand told a news conference on Friday: “Things like this aren’t going to get us down. We want to make sure we keep the team morale.”

Organisational headaches eased somewhat in co-host Japan, as the first batch of long-awaited tickets turned up, saving officials the embarrassment of handing them out at stadiums.

An official at organising body JAWOC said 5,000 of the 150,000 tickets it was still waiting to receive had arrived in Tokyo, adding that the rest were expected to land on Saturday.—Reuters