Trap clears up Doyle fatigue comments

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI has been at pains to say that he meant no criticism of Wolves or Mick McCarthy when he expressed concerns about Kevin Doyle perhaps feeling the effects of a long season before he suffered a knee ligament injury in the game against Macedonia on Saturday.

When the comments were relayed to McCarthy, perhaps not entirely accurately, they prompted him to shoot back that there had been no suggestion of the player leaving the club for international duty “anything other than 100% fit”.

The Ireland manager said yesterday: “I just wanted to clarify that what I said seems to have come across differently. It’s just that I see players playing a lot of games and it’s tough on them. It’s also possible that when they play so many games, they may not have 90 minutes in their legs anymore. I wasn’t suggesting anyone was at fault and certainly not suggesting anything about McCarthy.”