Martin O’Neill defends James McCarthy handling but Ronald Koeman fumes

Martin O’Neill has defended Ireland’s handling of the injury-prone James McCarthy but, overnight, Ronald Koeman has strongly criticised both the player and the Ireland manager for the ultimately unfruitful decision to select him for last week’s World Cup qualifier against Wales, writes Liam Mackey.

The Everton boss alleged in the Daily Mirror: “It was a final decision against the medical staff of Ireland and also against the medical staff of Everton. And there are two people responsible for that. One is the player himself. Finally, if he says, ‘Yes, I’m fit’, okay but even the player needs protection from the manager and, once again, they didn’t give that protection to the player.”