Martin O’Neill: “Hopefully we’ll have that bit of extra freshness ahead of Tuesday’s game.
“[The break] is as much about the injured players as anything else – Carlos Cuellar, Danny Rose and Lee Cattermole are all not that far away from being fit again.
“Having won the game [at Wigan] last Saturday, it would have been nice to be involved in the cup again with a chance to play Everton.
“That’s gone now, so we can concentrate fully on Tuesday night.”