Ireland striker Simon Cox says he's praying that Ireland captain Robbie Keane can recover from his injury in time to face Armenia in Dublin on October 11 night even though Keane's absence would hand Cox the chance to start the game and turn himself into an Ireland hero, Herald.ie reports.

"I'd love to see Robbie play, he's our best chance of getting through and you want your best players out there. You can't be selfish in these situations," Cox told the Herald. "Robbie would be devastated to miss this game but I know he's working as hard as he can to be fit. If he's not fit, he will give full support to whoever fills his place.

Oct 11 sees a clash of styles with the meanest defense in Europe (eight successive clean sheets for Ireland) against one of the deadliest strike forces around (11 goals in the last three qualifiers for Armenia), the report says.

"They (Armenia) have scored 11 goals in their last three games and that's phenomenal for any team, even more so at international level, but with our defensive record I feel we can deal with that. Not just the guys at the back but the whole team, because we defend as a team,” Cox said.