With Shay Given dislocating his shoulder against Arsenal on Saturday, maybe it was fate that Ireland didn’t make it to the World Cup finals (in Patrice Evra-esque hard-to-stomach circumstances). His unavailability, possibly until the autumn, paves the way for Waterford’s Brian Murphy, called up to the Republic’s end-of-season training camp in exotic Malahide, to stake a claim as the Donegal man’s immediate understudy.
