“There’s a problem with her MCL (medial collateral ligament),” Ward said when pushed on the details.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s all I\u2019ll say for now. She\u2019s seeing a consultant in Liverpool today. We\u2019ll know more then.”<\/p>\n
It’s a headache Ward could have done without. O’Sullivan leaves an enormous void in the middle of the park, her work rate without the ball matched by a rare class on it.<\/p>\n
![\"6](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/002402a7-614.jpg\"\/)
\nKatie McCabe on the Stadion Galgenwaard pitch<\/p>\n
When the Cork 32-year-old initially went down with her injury midway through the first half, Ward ordered Abbie Larkin to get stripped. O’Sullivan ended up finishing the game, but Ward possibly intended to station Larkin at right wing-back, shift Aoife Mannion into the central defensive three and nudge Anna Patten into the middle of the park.<\/p>\n
That would have given Ireland a real physical presence in midfield; Patten and Megan Connolly are tall, mobile players with strong defensive sensibilites. They’d also liberate Marissa Sheva to be more creative, acting as bridge between midfield and the Emily Murphy\/Kyra Carusa double act up top.<\/p>\n
It’s an option, though Ward could also just roll the dice on Ruesha Littlejohn, who’s had very little competitive football under her belt over the last three months but is trusted and admired by her head coach.<\/p>\n
Ward gave little away yesterday.<\/p>\n
“We’ll consider plenty of different options,” she stressed. “Pattsy did tremendously well (in defence against France). I thought the back five were excellent. France had very, very minimal box entries, and that said a lot about the way that from front to back we defended, so there’s plenty of options, plenty to consider.”<\/p>\n
There’s loads of quality in the Dutch ranks but the name that will jump out to Irish fans is Vivianne Miedema, who had her pocket picked in the build-up to Poland’s first goal on Tuesday. It’s fair to say the Manchester City striker has credit in the bank: she’s scored 104 times for her country.<\/p>\n
“They play a different way, you know,” added Ward. “They’re very, very clear in the way they play and I think it depends on whether Kerstin Casparij is fit or they go with Lynn Wilms.<\/p>\n
“Naturally that will give you the height on the right and whether it’s Esmee Brugts on the left that will probably give you the width down the left. So I think it’s really clear with the way they play, certainly under Arjan, they have a clear identity and they’re very good at that by the way.”<\/p>\n
Ireland are guaranteed a place in the World Cup play-offs even if they finish bottom of the four-team group, but there’s a deep desire to avoid that fate. They want a third-place finish that would benefit their seeding for the play-offs and preserve hopes of remaining in Legue A of the Nations League.<\/p>\n
Losing O’Sullivan is such a massive blow that it might put the task of nabbing a point here beyond them. Another energy-sapping night’s work awaits.<\/p>\n
Predicted team: Courtney Bosnan; Aoife Mannion, Jessie Stapleton, Caitlin Hayes, Chloe Mustaki, Katie McCabe; Megan Connolly, Anna Patten, Marissa Sheva; Emily Murphy; Kyra Carusa<\/p>\n
Prediction: Netherlands 2-1 Republic of Ireland<\/p>\n
Watch Netherlands v Republic of Ireland in World Cup qualifying on Saturday from 7.15pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on the RT\u00c9 News App and on rte.ie\/sport. Listen to live commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA Women’s World Cup Group A2 qualifier Netherlands v Republic of Ireland, Stadion Galgenwaard, 7.45pm ko(Live on RT\u00c92…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-333682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333682","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=333682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}