{"id":218983,"date":"2025-12-31T00:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/218983\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:43:07","slug":"josh-cullen-ruled-out-of-irelands-world-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/218983\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Cullen ruled out of Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Worst fears about Josh Cullen\u2019s availability for Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoffs in March have been realised with confirmation of the midfielder\u2019s ACL tear.<\/p>\n<p>Cullen was Ireland\u2019s first choice central midfielder in a campaign which concluded in dramatic fashion by pipping Hungary to the runners-up spot. He missed just one match through suspension.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He was in line to start the semi-final against Czechia in Prague on March 26 but will be sidelined for several months &#8211; placing into doubt his fitness for the summer tournament if Ireland qualify.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The 29-year-old sustained the devastating injury against Everton last weekend, clutching his knee before hobbling off, helped by medical staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cNormally it&#8217;s about nine months so we are looking at that for now,&#8221; said Burnley manager Scott Parker after Tuesday\u2019s defeat to Newcastle United.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a huge blow for us on and off the pitch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ireland will host either Denmark or North Macedonia in the playoff final on March 29 if they can produce another statement away victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Worst fears about Josh Cullen\u2019s availability for Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoffs in March have been realised with confirmation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":["post-218983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-news","tag-premiership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}