Updated 19.55
MARTIN O’NEILL GAVE himself a clean bill of health as he downplayed the Ireland management’s M50 car crash.
O’Neill and his backroom staff were involved in a ‘very minor’ collision on Tuesday evening as preparations continue for the crunch Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland.
“We’re fine, we’re fine,” O’Neill said. “I’ll survive anyway.”
The Ireland boss was reluctant to go into much more detail on the incident, which also involved assistant manager Roy Keane and his coaches Steve Walford, Steve Guppy and Seamus McDonagh.
The management returned to the team hotel afterwards where they were examined by the team doctor.
“We just got shunted from the back and I’ll speak for myself and say I’m feeling not so bad.
“Listen, we’re fine.”
O’Neill and Keane were reportedly spotted in Cobh earlier on Tuesday but O’Neill said details of how they had spent their day off were not “wildly important.”
“In the scheme of life, that’s not really important.
“If I really wanted to do that, I should go on Twitter with what I’m doing every 10 minutes.”
He added: “We gave the players a little bit of time off and I think they were ok. Some of them played a little bit of golf but they all reported back last night and we trained this morning and they’re ok.
“They may have slagged some of the other staff but they certainly didn’t slag me.”
Harry Arter has emerged as the main injury concern after the Bournemouth playmaker missed training today to have hip and groin injury assessed.
“That’s a shame because I thought when he came on [against England], he did very well indeed,” O’Neill said.
He’s starting to grow into this I think. Naturally during the next few months, his time at Bournemouth when he’s in the Premiership will stand him in good stead.
“Overall he made a very decent impression when he came on and I was delighted for him.”
Paul McShane (toe) is also a doubt but there was better news concerning Wes Hoolahan and Jon Walters, who both took part in training today, as did John O’Shea who is feeling “much, much better”, according to O’Neill.
– First published 13.22
