Clean bill of health for Vera Pauw ahead of crucial clash with Georgia

The Republic of Ireland have a clean bill of health ahead of tomorrow's crucial World Cup Group A qualifier with Georgia.

A victory for the Girls in Green in Gori will move them up to second in the Group A table ahead of Finland, their main rivals for the play-off place.

Manager Vera Pauw has confirmed that Courtney Brosnan will start the game - as she has done for all five qualifiers so far - but the rest of the team selection won't be known until closer to kick off tomorrow evening.

The squad arrived in Georgia, after a week of acclimatisation in Turkey, although the weather is now expected to be slightly cooler than they had been planning for - mid-20s, with the potential for showers.

For Pauw though, the long spell together with the squad, including a friendly win over World Cup-bound The Philippines, is a "luxury" which she hopes can stand to them, not just in tomorrow's game, but for the showdown meeting with Finland in September.

"You make a huge jump in it and it will hopefully benefit our preparations for Finland, if we can get through this game in a positive way," she says at the pre-match press conference.

"The good thing is that players could get rhythm. Being together for such a long period is a luxury. On the other hand you need to be careful of not using every minute because that would not help the learning process.

"It needs to settle in the brain, and physically you need to be able to train [at] 100% and, if you're tired, you cannot train 100%.

"So we've had recovery days and off days in between. That is part of that process of being together for so long and being able to go through so many subjects with them.

"We're very grateful."

Unusually, after the victory over the Philippines, a selection of players from