Festy Ebosele a doubt for Bulgaria play-off due to injury

Festy Ebosele has emerged as an injury concern for Heimir Hallgrimsson ahead of Ireland's March double-header against Bulgaria.

The right-sided Watford man picked up an ankle injury in the Hornets' 2-1 defeat to Preston, in a game that manager Tom Cleverley described as overly physical at times, lamenting his side being on the end of aggressive tackling from behind by the visiting side.

Ebosele came on in the 15th minute, replacing Kwadwo Baah, who picked up a thigh injury early in the game, however, the Wexford man's evening ended early as he had to be substituted eight minutes into the second half.

The attack-minded Ebosele impressed new Ireland coach Hallgrimsson in the recent Nations League campaign and was instrumental in securing the first win of the new regime in Helsinki, setting up Robbie Brady for the winning goal.

"Festy is not good news, and one that we thought might not be so serious," said Cleverley.

"There was more than one occasion on Tuesday when Preston recovered possession with tackles coming in from behind that made contact with the player as well as the ball. Not just the Festy one, but on James Abankwah as well which led to their first goal.

"Festy's injury looks a lot like Dan Bachmann’s (out for three months with an ankle ligament injury) from our initial scans, but again we’ll assess further and go from there."

It was an eventful night for Watford’s Irish contingent with the aforementioned Abankwah getting substituted at half-time, having only recently made his debut with the Vicarage Road side.

On a positive note, however, Rocco Vata was again on the scoresheet, and the Ireland Under-21 striker is emerging as another attacking option for Hallgrimsson ahead of the Nations League play-off in March,