McCarthy fails to answer call

JAMES McCARTHY’S future as an Ireland international is back on the agenda with a vengeance after the player failed to respond to his call-up to the latest squad.

The news, which has completely overshadowed tonight’s Carling Cup game against Northern Ireland, emerged cryptically at first yesterday when, in the course of his pre-match press conference in Dublin, Giovanni Trapattoni revealed: “Someone has been called up and hasn’t answered yet.”

The manager said that he was not prepared to name the player but, by a process of elimination, journalists quickly worked out that the missing man was Wigan midfielder McCarthy, who played a full 90 minutes on Sunday in the victory over Stoke City which kept his club in the Barclays Premier League.