Ailing Wood to suit up

Wood, who has played in only four of Ireland’s last 10 games, most recently has been troubled with a neck injury picked up in the World Cup qualifier against Russia on Sept. 21. Wood has said that this will be his last international season and he is unlikely to risk further injury against the world champions.
It’s likely that Wood will be fit to resume in one of the other two games at Lansdowne later this month, Fiji on Nov. 16 or Argentina on Nov. 23. With doubts about the fitness of the captain, Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan has named three vice captains: Anthony Foley, David Humphreys and Brian O’Driscoll.
Meanwhile, O’Driscoll has been shortlisted for the International Rugby Association’s Player of the Year award. The Irish center is one of five nominees. The others are Fabien Galthie (France), Stephen Larkham (Australia), Jonny Wilkinson (England) and Scott Robertson (New Zealand). The winner will be announced at a dinner in London on Nov. 13.

VODAFONE ALL-STARS
As usual, the All-Ireland football and hurling champions lead the way in the list of nominations for the 2002 Vodafone All-Stars. All-Ireland football champions Armagh have nine nominations, while Kilkenny, the reigning All-Ireland hurling champions, have 11 players nominated. There are big changes from last year in the 45 football nominations, with only two of the 2001 winners — Galway’s Padraig Joyce and Declan Meehan — nominated this time around.
There is, however, recognition for some of the lesser football counties, with players like Leigh O’Brien (Wexford), Rory Gallagher (Fermanagh), Declan Browne (Tipperary) and John Quane (Limerick) nominated, although there are unlikely to be many surprises when the team is named.
In hurling, Kilkenny’s D.J. Carey seems set to win his ninth award, despite playing only two games all year. Carey returned to the Kilkenny squad after the Leinster final, but such was his performances in the All-Ireland semifinal and final that the Gowran man seems certain to win another award.
The hurling and football teams will be presented with their awards at a banquet in Dublin on Nov. 29.

INJURED JOCK UNSADDLES
Meath-born jockey Adrian Maguire has been forced to retire on medical grounds. The 31-year-old failed to recover from a fractured neck suffered in a fall at Warwick in March after which he had to war a metal halo brace for two and a half months.
Maguire’s best season was 1993-94, when he rode 194 winners, just three behind Richard Dunwoody in the title race. Overall, Maguire’s career total was 1,024, putting him sixth in the overall jump jockey table in Britain. “Certainly in the last 20 years, Adrian has been the best jockey not to have been champion,” Dunwoody said last week.

McIVER EYES TYRONE
Brian McIver is the latest man to throw his hat into the ring for the job of Tyrone football manager. McIver led Ballinderry to All-Ireland club success last year.
The Tyrone vacancy arose in confusing circumstances. Art McRory, who had just been reappointed along with Eugene McKenna, apparently wanted to step down temporarily due to viral infection. But the County Board then said that the job was up for grabs. McKenna is willing to do it on his own and Under-21 manager Mickey Harte is also reported to be interested.
Meanwhile, new Derry manager Mickey Moran has confirmed his coaching team. Joining him as assistant manager will be Armagh man John Morrison, who also worked with Moran in Donegal. Former Derry goalkeeper John Somers and Kevin Collins from St. Patrick’s Dungannon complete the Derry backroom team.
In Wexford, former intercounty star John Conran is tipped to take over as manager of the county senior team from Tony Dempsey. And Len Gaynor is favored to take over from Fr. Tom Fogarty in Offaly. Gaynor, a former Tipp star, has had managerial experience with Tipperary and
Clare.

SPONSOR SNAFU
The draw has been made for the Bank of Ireland Football championship for 2003, but already there is speculation that next year could be the bank’s last as sponsors of the All-Ireland football championship. Bank of Ireland have sponsored the football championship since 1994 and have got good mileage out of the competition with some innovative advertising, such as paraphrasing the words of John F. Kennedy for the slogan “Ask not what your county can do for you?” But with a change of management at the bank there’s speculation that sponsorship could move in a different direction. When the current agreement ends next year, Bank of Ireland will have first refusal on a new deal, but if it opts out, there would be queue of potential sponsors waiting to take over.
AIB, which sponsors the All-Ireland club championship, All-Stars sponsors Vodafone and Coca Cola, which have sponsored the International Rules series against Australia, would probably all be willing to take over.

NO IRISH RYDER CAPTAIN?
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie says he wants to captain the European Team in the 2006 Ryder Cup in Ireland. And the Scot probably annoyed many Irish fans when he said: “I don’t think there is a natural Irish captain at the moment. I will be 43 in 2006, two years older than Seve Ballesteros was in Valderama in 1997. I have to ask myself is the next Ryder Cup my last. If it is, I’ll take the captaincy in Ireland. If approached, the answer would be yes.”
Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington says that he would like to see an Irish captain, but so far there has been no strong case made for any Irishman to lead Europe at the K Club in four years.

KERRY RATIFICATION
Kerry, who will return to the Munster senior hurling championship next year after a two-year absence, are expected to ratify the appointment of Maurice Leahy and Eddie Murphy as joint managers at a County Board meeting this week. Next year, Kerry are paired with Waterford, the reigning Munster champions. Kerry’s last championship win was against Waterford nine years ago. But after that win Kerry suffered a string of crushing defeats and after the 34-point loss to Cork in 2000, they opted out of the senior ranks.

KEANE IN CORK
Roy Keane is certain to get a great reception when he makes his first public appearance in his hometown of Cork since the World Cup Finals tomorrow. Keane will be in Eason’s on Thursday afternoon to sign copies of his best-selling autobiography. The signings sessions were postponed a few weeks when Keane had to enter hospital in Manchester for a hip operation. Further signing sessions are planned for Eason’s in Belfast on Nov. 12 and Eason’s in Dublin on Nov. 15. Keane’s book, written with Eamon Dunphy, has been at No. 1 on the bestsellers list in Ireland for the last 10 weeks.
So far there are no plans for a signing session by Mick McCarthy to promote his book, which this week has moved up to fourth in the bestseller list. But the Irish manager, who opted out of the “Late Late Show” last Friday, is now expected to be Pat Kenny’s guest on the popular chat show this Friday.

HOLLAND PLEA FOR UNITY
Irish midfielder Matt Holland has called on Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy to end their feud for the sake of Irish football.
“It would be great to have Roy back in the side because you are always going to miss a player of his quality,” the Ipswich midfielder said. “Every time we meet up there is much talk about the situation and it won’t go away. Maybe the time has come for everyone to shake hands and put the whole thing behind us.
“I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with Roy coming back into the side and we have definitely missed him in the last couple of games. All this is out of my hands, but it would be nice to think something could be sorted out.”