Rogers called into Ireland squad

Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers has been called into the Republic of Ireland squad for the upcoming games against Oman and Serbia.

Rogers, who was on the bend for the friendly with Holland in May, has been called into the squad following David Forde's decision to remain with Portsmouth, who are in League Two action at the weekend.

“David has just joined a new club. He is first choice at the minute," manager Martin O'Neill explained. "He feels that just at the moment that his first duty is to Portsmouth. They have some games during the break and he doesn’t want to give up that position. I agree with that sentiment and so he’s not with us.”

Rogers will train with the squad for the rest of the week before returning to his club for the SSE Airtricity League clash with Bohemians on Friday night. He will then travel to Belgrade with Ireland for the World Cup qualifier with Serbia on Monday.

With the transfer window due to close on Wednesday evening, O'Neill admits some players may have to leave the camp in order to finalise their club futures.

"Some of the players might leave to have medicals if there are opportunities at clubs. I don’t have a problem with that. That’s just part things of this week. Hopefully it will all be cleared up on Thursday morning after which we can get completely focused on the Serbia game,” he said.

Wednesday's clash with Oman will mark Robbie Keane's final appearance for the Republic of Ireland.

The 36-year-old will win his 146th cap when he takes to the Aviva Stadium and he will be hoping to add to his 67 goals on what is expected to be an emotional night for the striker.

Paying tribute to the LA Galaxy player, O'Neill said: "Since I've come, the only disappointment I would have had is that I didn't have a 27-year-old Robbie Keane rather than a 33-year-old, at the time, I think he was.

"He's been a terrific, an absolutely terrific player and certainly he will be hard to replace.

"Robbie will take away some great memories with the number of games he has played, the number of goals he has scored.

"I haven't told him whether he will start the game, but he will certainly be participating in the game. There's a fairly decent chance he will start the game.

"Is he one [goal] behind Gerd Muller? Is he? Well, he'd better do it in the first 20 minutes of the game because he's going to find time pressing, really pressing."

Wednesday's match international friendly against Oman is live on eir Sport 1.

Setanta Sports is now eir Sport. We have 6 great channels of live sport including eir Sport 1 & 2 and all 4 BT Sport channels. The eir Sport pack is free to all eir broadband customers. To learn more about setting sport free visit www.eir.ie/sport .