Steven Reid: This is a game nobody wants

THE players will be present and correct at the Cardiff City Stadium tonight, but I would forgive them if their minds were elsewhere to a degree.

Of all the international windows, this is the most unpopular with the players. The new Premier League campaign is about to start and you have done all of the hard work in pre-season only to be whisked away for a few days to play a friendly.

I wasn't a massive fan of this part of the schedule. I remember one game that should have been memorable for all the right reasons but is tainted because of the timing.

Steve Staunton showed huge faith in me by handing me the armband for a friendly against Holland at Lansdowne Road in 2006, something that I was so proud of, a huge honour.

Nasty

That lifted the game from a run-of-the-mill friendly for me, but on the flipside I picked up a nasty ankle injury early in the game and was forced off as we lost 4-0.

As a result I struggled for the first couple of games of the season at Blackburn Rovers, meaning I wasn't able to perform to the best of my abilities, and the whole thing left me with mixed emotions.

The lads have been in pre-season for six weeks now, they are gearing up for the Premier League season and are just hoping to get through this game unscathed and available for the weekend's fixtures.

Let's face it, Giovanni Trapattoni knows these players, he has his team in mind for the big games against Sweden and Austria to come. We won't learn too much from the Welsh game that we don't already know.

The club managers are definitely not fans of this fixture, as in the build-up to the opening day of a new season, a lot of players aren't available to their clubs.

They'll come back tomorrow for a stretch and a light run, but the club managers won't have much of a chance to get the last bits of tactical advice across to their players.

On the positive side for the Irish lads, the game is in Wales, which cuts down on the travel involved. Most of the players will get back home at a reasonable hour to allow the maximum recovery time before their games at the weekend.

Friday is another day where you cannot do a lot of work, so it is a light week.

At West Brom, we did all of our preparation last week and had a good win last weekend over Bologna in our final pre-season friendly.

It is difficult to get any more work done because of this game. We are training with a mixture of the development squad at the moment, with a couple of youth team guys and the remaining first-teamers who are not involved with their country. It is a bit of an awkward week, there is not the same buzz about the place.

Tonight's game is just a case of getting the lads together after a summer away, and getting some training together with the two massive upcoming qualifiers in mind.

Trapattoni will be clear in his mind about his team and the options available, so even if a fringe player does well tonight I am not sure if it will be enough to turn the Italian's head.

Wes Hoolahan will get another chance in behind Shane Long and his reappearance is a sign that maybe Trap is loosening up a little and encouraging a bit of additional creativity. The frustrating thing for the Norwich City man is that he knows that it is likely that Robbie Keane will come back in, if fit, for the qualifier games.

But if Wes can earn Trapattoni's trust, he can be an option off the bench to come in and unlock the door in those crucial clashes.

Trap will also have his eye on the new season, and two players who are not involved in Cardiff in particular. Keith Andrews has secured a move to an up-and-coming club in Brighton and Hove Albion. After being a massive part of this Ireland team in recent years, Keith can use that as a launchpad to get back into the squad.

Similarly, Richard Dunne's ability to overcome his injuries at QPR will be watched closely. After a disappointing year, he could still have a big part to play. His experience could be the difference between winning and losing in Ireland's crunch games.

Another stalwart who is not in favour at the minute is Kevin Doyle. He still has the quality, but he needs a move to reignite his career. The writing is on the wall at Wolves, where they have a lot of players in League One on Premier League wages. It is just a matter of time before Kevin gets a move. He has been linked with Celtic and a couple of Premier League sides. He deserves to play at a higher level.

Tonight, the players and the manager will have to be sensible. If you go out looking not to get injured, that's invariably when it happens.

Some of the lads need football, others just need a half. It is a hard one for those involved because that big kick-off will be on their minds. They just want to get back to their clubs in a healthy state.