O’Neill: Belfast trip might be problem for McClean

MARTIN O’NEILL would be prepared to leave James McClean out of the Republic of Ireland team if the friendly against Northern Ireland next week was in Belfast, not Dublin. With McClean receiving flak for refusing to wear a poppy to commemorate Remembrance Sunday, O’Neill is also wary of inflaming the Northern Ireland fans travelling to Aviva Stadium. O’Neill, who feels the Stoke City winger’s views ‘should be respected’ will have a conversation with McClean on Monday next about the poppy row implications. ‘This [issue] rears its head at this particular time of the year for James. Ironically, it just happens to be when we’re coming into camp,’ said O’Neill yesterday. ‘If this game was up North and he was going to be subjected to whatever he might be, then at the end of the day I would certainly have a look at that. ‘I wouldn’t have envisaged that as being a problem [in Dublin], regardless of us playing the North.’ When asked yesterday whether it was difficult for him [O’Neill] to wear a poppy at this time of the year, as he has many times, the Irish manager said, ‘I don’t think you should be

asking me that if you don’t mind.’ It’s 25 years since the ill-tempered World Cup qualifier between Northern Ireland and the Republic at Windsor Park, a ground where O’Neill was on the receiving end of vitriol as a rookie international from a Catholic background. ‘I had to battle through those early days there. Maybe it was because I was playing crap,’ he recalled wryly. ‘They were tough matches, the crowd not accepting you at Windsor Park, but you battle through that, you come through it and it was great. ‘There were those games when it was Celtic versus Rangers as well.’ O’Neill, who captained Northern Ireland at the 1982 World Cup finals, spoke of ‘a great spirit, a great camaraderie between the Catholics and Protestants in the side’ under Billy Bingham. ‘I would defy anyone who participated at that time to say a great bond didn’t exist. ‘That’s not to say that we didn’t have different convictions about things, but we mucked in together in the game. ‘It was genuinely terrific. [Those finals] will live with me for a very, very long time.’ O’Neill yesterday named four uncapped players, Caoimhin Kelleher (above) (Liverpool), Jimmy Dunne (Hearts), Ryan Manning (Rotherham) and Michael Obafemi (Southampton) in his squad to play the North, and Denmark in the Nations League. Striker Obafemi, 18, figured as a substitute for the Saints against Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday. Robbie Brady returns after a year’s absence through injury, while Seamus Coleman is back after missing last month’s double-header against Denmark and Wales.