Declan Rice's silence means controversy rumbles on

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Martin O’Neill’s plea for people not to rush to judgment on Declan Rice has fallen on deaf ears, writes Liam Mackey

Once it was revealed on Monday that the player was having second — and perhaps even final — thoughts about committing his international future to Ireland, the backlash was inevitable.

And while he will hardly have welcomed James McClean’s intervention, on past experience O’Neill was probably half-expecting that one too.