Karen Duggan says that supporters will have to be realistic as Ireland prepare for World Cup qualifiers with the Netherlands and France over the next four days.

The Girls in Green know two wins from their next two games would see them book their place at next year's World Cup automatically.

Their last meeting with the Dutch ended in defeat as Lineth Beerensteyn scored in the last 10 minutes to break Irish hearts in Utrecht.

Ireland head into this evening's clash with Oranje without the suspended duo of Denise O'Sullivan and Emily Murphy.

And Duggan, who was capped 35 times for her country, says the absence of those two players is a blow.

"I don't think we can downplay it," she said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"Over the course of the campaign, and even the games leading up to that, Denise O'Sullivan and Emily Murphy have been the only players who've won the Player of the Match trophy, and rightly so.

"They really have been the engine, and particularly Emily Murphy, she's having that breakout campaign for the Irish team where she's definitely solidified her place.

"She's becoming the focal point of how we're playing because we're still quite solid defensively, playing a bit of a transitional game, and she has that pace and power to spearhead the attack.

"Taking her energy - and Denise O'Sullivan's energy - out of any team is a huge, huge loss, particularly when we consider we struggled a little bit against the Dutch in the last game, when Denise was out through injury.

"We've learned a little bit from that but, in terms of squad depth, there's no one really who can directly replace them, I don't think."

On who might come into the Irish team, Duggan added: "Jess Ziu, who's a naturally more attacking minded player, and I don't think that would be any harm.

"She's had a really tough time with cruciate ligament injuries, but she's one for the future."

Ireland have six points from their four games so far, with back-to-back victories over Poland putting them in prime position to finish third, and take the seeded play-off spot on offer.

Indeed, they will secure third spot before kick-off later if Poland fail to beat France in Gdansk.

Ireland started the campaign as bottom seeds so, for Duggan, getting that seeded play-off place would be a huge achievement for the team.

"I know we're talking about getting into those qualification places directly and not going through the qualifiers," she continued.

"But realistically, we probably are going to go through that path and getting more minutes into someone like Jess Ziu's legs, who would be a big player for us if we did get to the World Cup, would be a really positive thing.

"I don't know if it's a negative thing to say these matches, they're bonus territory. We all expected France to walk the group.

"Now, the way that Netherlands' results have gone with France has thrown that up in the air. The fact that Poland took points off the Netherlands, that was a big shock too.

"So the table is looking tighter than expected but we're sitting on six points, which is exactly where we wanted to be in order to get that seeded play-off.

"As such, you could look at these two games as bonus territory and a way to just continue that improvement that we really have seen since the Belgium game under Carola Ward."

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Source: RTE