'I'm not interested in what Roy Keane has to say' - Everton boss Koeman has another pop at Irish management team

Koeman and O’Neill were embroiled in two high profile spats last season as Ireland used McCarthy despite doubts over his fitness and he remained in the Irish squad throughout the latest international break despite not playing for Everton this season due to injury.

Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane offered up predictably inflammatory comments during the international break that were not welcomed by Everton, as he suggested once again that McCarthy’s conditioning was not being helped by the Goodison Park medical staff.

“James seems to be getting a lot of injuries at Everton, so I don’t think we’ve anything to worry about in terms of how much we push James,” said Keane.

“To be fair, the medical staff are overseeing all of it and they’re in contact with Everton and all their scientists. I think they’ve more scientists involved now than there needs to be.”

Koeman responded with dismissive remarks of his own, as he confirmed McCarthy is not fit to play in his side’s game at Brighton this weekend despite not being used by Ireland for their World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Wales.

“I don’t know what Keane said about the situation. I’m not interested in his comments,” stated Koeman.

“The player had several problems physically and we tried to solve that problem. He’s now back. For the first time they did a good thing not to use the player in the state of fitness that he is.

“We’d like to bring him back, he’s a good boy, an important player for us, but we don’t take risks. That’s good for him, that’s good for us and let’s hope he will be totally fit and available for next weekend.”

The enduring war of words looks set to run and run.