Bad news for Irish as Zidane returns

IT’S the news Irish football fans have dreaded - Zinedine Zidane is back for France.

And his midfield partner, Chelsea’s Claude Makelele, has joined the Real Madrid superstar in coming out of international retirement in time for the crunch World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road on September 7th.

Zidane announced his decision on his own website, saying: “I have decided to come back for Les Bleus.” And, cryptically, he added: “I don’t want to go into too much detail but I have gone back on my decision, one year after I said it was categorical.”