Hull City’s Stephen Quinn will join up with the Republic of Ireland squad on Sunday morning after Glenn Whelan was ruled out of the must-win game against Austria with a hamstring injury.

The latter sustained the injury during the 2-1 World Cup qualifying defeat to Sweden on Friday night and after a scan on Saturday revealed the Stoke midfielder would not be fit to take his place on the pitch in Vienna on Tuesday.

Jon Walters also had a scan on an ankle injury but he is expected to be fit and available.

Ireland now need not only to win in Vienna but also for other results to go their way and manager Giovanni Trapattoni said he had had to talk to his players in an attempt to ensure they do not completely give up yet on making it to Brazil next summer.

“Obviously the table is more difficult now but I told the players this morning that in a league they can win or lose but then in the next game they must start again with confidence and trust...there is always the possibility to achieve the result.

“That’s what we have to do now. We have to win and to wait to see what happens with Germany and Sweden but over three games we must remember that anything can happen.”

Trapattoni defended his decision to make just two like for like changes over the course of the second half against the Swedes, insisting that he did not feel he had players of sufficient quality to change the game as he saw it. “We had no Platini, Boniek, Tardelli or Ibra,” he said. “These are players who might have made a difference but we had none of them.”

He is likely to shake things up slightly against the Austrians, he said however. “I’m considering one or two changes....maybe three because we need fresh energy.”

Qualification remains the target as long as it is even mathematically possible Trapattoni maintained but, he admitted that there is now a fall-back position when he observed: “It is also important that we achieve at least third in the table, ahead of the Austrians, so we can’t change too much.”