But if players aren’t fit, you have got to respect the clubs.
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“And if they become available over the next day or two for the second leg then it would be a fantastic bonus”.
Southampton striker Long, who scored the only goal in the qualifying win over Germany on October 8, suffered a foot injury in Warsaw three days later and has not seen action since.
Allardyce said: “No, I don’t think so, but he will be talking to them”.
However, Magpies head coach McClaren said after the game that he “hoped” the 29-year-old would not join up with the Ireland squad ahead of their two-legged Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina this week.
“I try not to worry what club managers say”.
The former Sunderland and Ipswich manager said: “You ask any of the players who worked under me, I never had a problem with players going away for internationals, never”.
“But it’s ironic that they all seem to get ruled out for 10-14 days”.
“I never ruled them out for 10-14 days every time there was an global match”.
Bosnia have never actually made it into a European finals before, but they did make history two summers ago when they featured in the World Cup in Brazil. The last month, even with John O’Shea when you go off with a hamstring like that and it’s a pull, you fear the worst for the players. Ireland will by no means shy away from the challenge, however, and they will aim to bounce back from the defeat to Poland with a result that should leave them in a strong position going back to compete on home soil come Monday.
“So I understand a manager wanting to look after his player in that context, not just Sam Allardyce”.
With the likes of Rob Elliot and Shane Long still rated as major doubts for both games, Keane expressed a few exasperation over the inclination of club managers to rule their players out of entire global windows so as to allow them recover in time for the subsequent league games.
“The information I’ve been given on all the players is that we’ll know more in the next 24 hours”.
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Ireland will travel to Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica for the November 13 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina (11:45 a.m. PT, ESPN, ESPN Deportes) before returning to Ireland for the second leg of the playoff on November 16 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin (11:45 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports Deportes).
