{"id":313074,"date":"2026-02-23T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313074\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:45:09","slug":"czechia-potentially-hit-with-massive-injury-blow-ahead-of-ireland-play-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313074\/","title":{"rendered":"Czechia Potentially Hit With Massive Injury Blow Ahead Of Ireland Play-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just over one month out from the World Cup play-off in Prague, close attention will be paid to the form of both the Ireland and Czechia players over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The fixture in March 26th will be the biggest either nation has taken part in in quite some time, with both teams having gone two decades without a World Cup appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland will be encouraged by the performances of some of their players in recent weeks, with the likes of Troy Parrott and Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher continuing to shine at club level. The same can be said of Czechia, although one of their key men could now be in a race against time to be fit for the game.<\/p>\n<p>READ ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/ange-postecoglou-roy-keane-2000-gesture-650015\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roy Keane Gets Emotional As Postecoglou Reveals Gesture From Cork Man Back In 2000<\/a><\/p>\n<p>READ ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/5-ireland-headaches-heimir-hallgrimsson-czechia-649928\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5 Ireland Headaches Heimir Hallgrimsson Must Address Before Czechia Play-Off<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Czechia Potentially Hit With Injury Blow Ahead Of Ireland Play-Off<\/p>\n<p>\n        Recommended\n    <\/p>\n<p>                        <a :href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\" :title=\"article.title\" :aria-label=\"article.title\" class=\"not-prose col-span-2 md:col-span-1 ga-event\" data-category=\"Recommended Article Tracker\" data-action=\"click\" :data-label=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\" :data-value=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\"><\/p>\n<p>                                            <img class=\"aspect-video\" width=\"130\" height=\"73\" :src=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.image\" :alt=\"'Image for: ' + article.title\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pavel Sul\u010d has been in sensational form this season, scoring 13 goals and registering seven assists for Lyon in Ligue 1. The 25-year old only joined the French club from Viktoria Plzen last summer for a fee of around \u20ac7.5million, quickly becoming one of the best players in the league.<\/p>\n<p>He has already been linked with a big money move to the Premier League in recent days. However, his availability for the game against Ireland now looks in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Sul\u010d would be substituted in the first half of Lyon&#8217;s clash with Strasbourg at the weekend. Their manager Paulo Fonseca would suggest after the game that he had suffered a &#8216;muscular injury at the back of the thigh&#8217;, with it being unclear how serious the issue is as of yet.<\/p>\n<p>With the game against Ireland just over four weeks away, it remains to be seen whether he will be available for the fixture in Prague.<\/p>\n<p>His absence would be a huge blow to Czechia. Along with Patrik Schick, he is the biggest attacking threat in the Czech side and would have no doubt played a big role for Miroslav Kobek&#8217;s side.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/5-ireland-headaches-heimir-hallgrimsson-czechia-649928\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">some fitness concerns of their own ahead of the fixture<\/a>. Left back and central midfield have been particularly hit by injury, with Evan Ferguson also nursing a recurring ankle issue at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/dundalk-drogheda-league-of-ireland-funding-patrick-odonovan-650325\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minister Makes Big Threat To League Of Ireland Funding After Dundalk Trouble<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over one month out from the World Cup play-off in Prague, close attention will be paid to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-313074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313074","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=313074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}