Kazakhstan v Ireland live updates: Follow the action from World Cup playoff

Astroturf alert: This game will be played on an artificial surface, a factor Ward said played a part in her team selection. “Let me tell you, players don’t like playing on 3G,” she said earlier in the week, so anyone carrying joint niggles and the like will be used sparingly, if at all. The temperatures were close to zero when the squad arrived in Astana on Monday, after an 11-hour trip, but it’s warmed up a bit since - it’ll be around the 10 degrees mark at kick-off time, Astana being four hours ahead of us. The roof will be closed in the Astana Arena, so that should help keep any chill out. One new name among the subs today is Shanade Hopcroft, the Crystal Palace midfielder a surprise inclusion in the squad Ward named last week. The 29-year-old qualifies for Ireland through her Sligo grandmother. Good morning - or if you’re in Astana, a highly pleasant afternoon to you. That’s where the Republic of Ireland’s women kick-start their efforts to get through four World Cup qualifying play-off games, the prize, if they prevail, a place at next summer’s finals in Brazil. They start, then, away to Kazakhstan (kick-off: noon, live on RTÉ 2), the return leg in Páirc Uí Chaoimh next Tuesday. And if they can come out on top of that play-off, the final hurdle will be Belgium or Poland over two legs in November and December. All week, the Irish camp has been stressing that they won’t take Kazakhstan for granted, but seeing as they are ranked 77 places below Ireland in the Fifa list, it would be - not to be dramatic or anything - a calamitous catastrophe if they failed to get the better of them.Here is the team news:We’ll take you through the line-up shortly, meanwhile you can have a read of Gavin Cummiskey’s preview of the game.[ Ireland without four key players as they face Kazakhstan in World Cup playoff semi-finalOpens in new window ]Republic of Ireland head coach Carla Ward is without four of her most trusted players for this game - captain Katie McCabe and Marissa Sheva (both suspended), Denise O’Sullivan (spared the long trip to Kazakhstan due to recent injury problems) and Ruesha Littlejohn (the 36-year-old still without a club having been released by Crystal Palace in May). To add to Ward’s woes, Jess Ziu, a likely replacement for O’Sullivan, was ruled out yesterday with a shin problem.Opportunity has knocked, then, for a few other players, notably midfielder Jamie Finn, who starts her first game for Ireland in three injury-interrupted years, and defender Jessie Stapleton, who hasn’t made the starting line-up since last October. It looks like Stapleton will make up a back three with Anna Patten and Caitlin Hayes, with Aoife Mannion and Chloe Mustaki the wing-backs. Finn is likely to partner Megan Connolly in midfield behind a front three of Kyra Carusa, Emily Murphy and Abbie Larkin.In the absence of McCabe and O’Sullivan, goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan captains the side.