Stephen Kenny's Shane Duffy defensive dilemma for Scotland clash

Stephen Kenny has a selection dilemma in defence ahead of Saturday's trip to Glasgow, and the Ireland manager admitted that fairness is sometimes overlooked when getting the right balance for his team.

Andrew Omobamidele withdrew from the squad that will travel to face Scotland at Hampden Park in the Nations League encounter, while Matt Doherty, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy have all struggled for game time at the start of the season.

Doherty has started the season on the bench at Spurs following his return from an injury that ruled him out of the final weeks of the season, as well as missing out on the four games in June for his country.

Likewise, Coleman started the season coming back from injury and while he has made the bench for Everton’s most recent Premier League games, he has been limited to League Cup action for the Goodison Park club.

Duffy was involved in three of the four international games in June, missing the final away trip to Poland to face Ukraine through suspension, and moved clubs to Fulham ahead of the new season, but he been unable to command a regular starting place at Craven Cottage.

In the absence of Coleman and Doherty for the two Ukraine games and the Scotland matches in June, Kenny turned to Alan Browne to sit in on the right side of the defence, however, it is expected that the two regular right-backs will battle it out for the starting spot on Saturday.

Duffy’s place in the team would have appeared rock solid as a result of his showing in green during the summer, most notably in the Scotland victory, however, with Nathan Collins, John Egan and Dara O’Shea all playing regularly at club level this season - and Collins’ heroics in the away game against Ukraine are still very fresh in the memory -