Martin O’Neill: 'I was not on my uppers when I took the job'

It was a day of corrections, clarifications, apologies but also no little defiance from Martin O’Neill, after Ireland training had resumed at Abbotstown yesterday.

While O’Neill himself apologised for his use of the word “queer” at a public event in Cork, he also revealed Roy Keane had apologised to those Irish players – among them Aiden McGeady - he had criticised so sharply after the 2-1 loss to Belarus at Turner’s Cross.

“Roy has spoken to the players,” said O’Neill. “Mine was most certainly inappropriate; his he felt was over the top.