Roy happy to leave Ireland call up to boss

Roy Keane is never short of an opinion but, as Ireland’s number two, he was happy to defer to Ireland’s number one yesterday, when the thorny subject of Stephen Ireland raised its head yet again.

“I think you spoke to Martin [O’Neill] about that and he made it clear that he is not shutting the door on any player,” said Keane.

Asked if he was disappointed the Stoke player had not responded personally to O’Neill’s attempts to contact him, Keane replied: “I have not thought too much about it. I’ve not really spoken to Stephen, I don’t know if any of you have, I don’t know what is going on. Martin was the one making enquiries for him.