Georgia and Serbia are Ireland's upcoming stumbling blocks on the road to Russia, and Martin O'Neill could be without two of his key players for the doubleheader in Tbilisi and Dublin.
Jon Walters departed Burnley's Carabao Cup game with Blackburn prematurely with an ankle ligament injury, although Sean Dyche has said that the scans are more positive than predicted:
Jon injured his ankle ligaments, but isn't as serious as it could have been, which is good news.
He still won't be back immediately, but there was good news from the scan and we are hopeful it was a pretty straightforward situation.
Dyche has another injury to worry about, and as the laws of probability dictate, it could have a knock-on effect for Ireland. Jeff Hendrick has a tight thigh, which means that he is a doubt for the Georgia and Serbia games.
Hendrick is unlikely to play at Wembley against Spurs on Sunday, and here's what Dyche had to say on Hendrick's availability:
Jeff is another one we will have to keep an eye on.
He has a tight thigh, so we'll be monitoring him over the next few days and see what happens.
Ireland face Georgia away on Saturday week, and host Serbia three days later.
It is the penultimate round of games: from there Ireland will aim to roll ova' Moldova on October 6th, before a potentially critical trip to Wales on October 9th.
