McCartney a doubt for Czech clash

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McCartney, who only recently recovered from a bout of pneumonia, sustained a hamstring injury in the defeat by Slovakia on Saturday and manager Nigel Worthington will assess McCartney's fitness on Tuesday.

"George has tightness of the hamstring and is having intensive treatment and rest as well," the Northern Ireland boss told BBC Radio Ulster. "We will monitor him over the next 24 hours. I would say he has a 50-50 chance of playing."

He added: "George hasn't played a lot of football as he was out for 10-11 weeks with quite a severe illness. Our medical team will make the decision."

If McCartney fails to make it, Manchester United's Jonny Evans could switch to left-back with Aaron Hughes reverting to central defence and Gareth McAuley being drafted in on the right.

It is a role Evans admits he would be comfortable with. "I have played there before," said the 20-year-old. "We have plenty of players who can play across the back four and that is a real plus for us."

Northern Ireland are intent on bouncing back against the Czechs, who are ranked eighth in the world, following the defeat in Bratislava.

Worthington might be tempted to give David Healy some support with either Warren Feeney or Martin Paterson in line to partner the province's record scorer.

Feeney said: "I am sure we will be right in our heads for this game despite what happened against Slovakia. The one positive thing from that match was we did ourselves proud in the last 20 minutes.

"It is a big game against the Czech Republic but everyone knows what we can do at Windsor. We just want to get out playing again."