O’NEILL: NO PROBLEM WITH MATT

MARTIN O’NEILL insists he doesn’t care if Matt Doherty wears an overcoat as the Republic of Ireland boss dismissed talk of a personal issue with the defender.

Despite being a Wolves mainstay last season and an ever-present this term, Doherty has only been granted two substitute appearances by O’neill.

The 26-year-old, who scored the winner at Crystal Palace yesterday (above), recently suggested his “face doesn’t fit” with O’neill, noting how the Ireland gaffer questioned him in training for wearing gloves.

O’neill is adamant the remark was made in jest and the only explanation for his lack of opportunities is down to captain Seamus Coleman being his first-choice right-back with Cyrus Christie an able deputy.

Ahead of this Saturday’s Nations League clash with Denmark in Dublin, O’neill revealed: “I said to Matt, ‘I have no problem with you wearing gloves in the middle of winter but I do have a problem with you wearing them in August time’. It was said as a joke, if Matt wears an overcoat and is playing well, good luck to him. Let him wear the overcoat as long as he has got the number on the back. I have no problem.

“It is the same as changing people’s little habits. When I was Villa manager, I said to John Carew, ‘You shouldn’t be going out on a Thursday night before a Saturday, it is actually against the club rules – but if you are out on a Wednesday and you score a hat-trick every Saturday, please stay out every Wednesday’.”