TIME TO TO MICK AMENDS

MICK MCCARTHY is pleading with Roy Keane to resolve his differences with Harry Arter for the good of the Irish team.

Keane (inset) was famously sent home by Mccarthy in the week leading up to the 2002 World Cup – but the former Ireland boss revealed he tried to get his captain back.

Mccarthy rates Arter – who made himself unavailable for tonight’s Nations League opener after a row with assistant boss Keane – and he feels that efforts should be made to mend fences.

“I think you have to try to get the best players on the pitch,”said the

59-year-old.

“Everybody is going to scream ‘Hold on, what about the 2002 World Cup when you sent Roy Keane home?’.

“But I did invite him back; the offer was there.

“That was me knowing that it was almost like the weight of the people that wanted him back. I had to offer that olive branch.

“I don’t know what their argument was about.

“I’m not bringing my case up because it was all dragged out again during the summer when the World Cup came around. The point being, for all my strongest feelings, the olive branch was there. I prefer to be mediating and making up, having a happy inclusive camp instead of a split one.

“Of course, 16 years later, that all sounds like nonsense. But that is the case.”