Big Mick insists he was right to axe Roy

Mick McCarthy has once again defended his sacking of Roy Keane in 2002 — insisting to this day ‘it was the right thing’ as Ireland manager.

Eleven years on from the episode in Saipan that resulted in Keane leaving the Ireland squad a week before the World Cup, the former Ireland skipper outlined last week for the first time his sense of regret at not playing at the showpiece.

McCarthy, currently in charge of Ipswich Town, seldom revisits the sequence of events on the Pacific island surrounding the blow-up between manager and skipper at the infamous meeting in the ballroom of the Hyatt Hotel.