Euro 2012: Shay Given will be fit, insists Marco Tardelli

The 36-year-old Aston Villa goalkeeper went through a gentle workout away from the main group at the Municipal Stadium in Gdynia yesterday.

And Given, who has been nursing knee and calf injuries as well as blistered feet, played just the first 45 minutes of Monday night’s friendly in Hungary, his only football since the end of the Barclays Premier League season. But assistant manager Tardelli said: “Today Shay rested because he knows his body. I think he is ready to play. Everything is good. He decides to work sometimes yes and sometimes no because he knows.”

Given, Ireland’s most-capped player, is a key member of coach Giovanni Trapattoni’s first-choice back five and the Italian would certainly want to include his name as the first on his teamsheet for the clash with the Croatians in Poznan. However, in Sunderland’s Keiren Westwood, he at least has an able deputy.

Trapattoni and his players were back on the training pitch yesterday after an unscheduled day off. But, amid suggestions that an approach from a players’ delegation had prompted the change in the wake of comments from winger Aiden McGeady following the game in Budapest, Tardelli was adamant the decision came from him alone.

He said: “We decide sometimes if it is better to do training or not, and we had a feeling that it was better to stay off. All the decisions depend on the boss.

“The players need to recover after a tough season, but every day we will have training in the morning.”