Quinn breaks down again as Sunderland held - March 6, 2001
Sunderland missed their chance to go third in the Premiership last night when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Aston Villa - but of greater concern to Ireland fans was the sight of Niall Quinn leaving the pitch in pain yet again.
The big striker left the scene ten minutes before the break with a recurrence of his long-standing back injury - and he must now be a serious concern for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup group 2 qualifiers against Cyprus and Andorra this month.
Recognising the danger, Ireland boss Mick McCarthy planned to run through his other striking options in last week's friendly against Denmark - with Robbie Keane and David Connolly starting the game and Gary Doherty, Kevin Kilbane and perhaps Rory Delap auditioning for the part at some stage of the game.
But the cancellation of the game due to bad weather put paid to those experiments - and last night's setback means McCarthy will almost certainly have to blood a new striking partnership against Cyprus on March 24 without the chance of a dry-run.
Neither will McCarthy have been reassured by the fact that out-of-form Kevin Kilbane was again left out by Sunderland and didn't even figure on the bench.
But there was encouragement for the future: young Dubliner Thomas Butler - 20 next month - made his Premiership debut for Sunderland, coming on as an 80th-minute sub for Oster.
The underage international midfielder played two Worthington Cup matches for the Black Cats early in the season before being farmed out on loan to Darlington.