Martin O’Neill has hit back at Ronald Koeman in the current row over James McCarthy.
The Republic of Ireland’s decision to recall McCarthy for their forthcoming World Cup qualifier with Austria is likely to anger the Everton manager.
Koeman previously accused the midfielder’s homeland of ‘over-loading’ him after starting successive games against Georgia and Moldova last month.
Since then, McCarthy has suffered a fresh hamstring injury in training after only featuring for the Blues once, in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
But O’Neill has accused Koeman of ‘bleating’ about the situation as he attempted to downplay concerns about the 25-year-old’s availability.
He said: “James is improving day by day.
“If the game was this weekend he wouldn’t make it. The following weekend I would say he’d be doubtful at this minute.
“Maybe he can get some proper training in. It’s one of those where I’ll leave him in provisional squad and see how things go. I would say he wouldn’t make it this week.
“I totally refute (Koeman’s comments) too. I didn’t get an opportunity to respond.
“Remarkably he trained on the very day that the manager was bleating about him.”