McAteer: I had no row with Mick
By Liam Mackey, Tokyo
JASON McATEER has denied reports that he had a bust-up with Mick McCarthy and even threatened to go home, over his omission from the Irish team against Germany.
The Sunderland player said that while he was very disappointed not to have been picked, the manager was "100% right" to leave him out.
The winger had sustained a knee injury as a result of a heavy challenge in the warm-up game in Izumo against Hiroshima. Although he played the first half of the opening World Cup clash with Cameroon, his position on the right was filled by Gary Kelly for the German game in Ibaraki last Wednesday. Subsequently, there were reports, now flatly contradicted, of a furious exchange with Mick McCarthy.
Said an unusually solemn McAteer yesterday: "Mick had been watching me in training since the Cameroon game and he wasn’t convinced that I was 100% fit. So he decided to go with the lads who’d done tremendously well in the second half. And it was a decision that I found hard to take, really. I’d tried every thing to get myself fit; I was on anti-inflammatories and training a couple of times a day and I felt very disappointed not to play.
"But that’s a reaction that any one of the lads would have had.
"At no stage was I going to go home. The only time we spoke about me going home was with (physio) Mick Byrne over a medical reason, in terms of whether the knee would be okay for me to stay and carry on.
"And, obviously, speaking to Mick, we decided to carry on, try and get fit and make myself available for the Saudi game, which is the case."
McAteer was also asked to clarify remarks he’d made at the weekend to the effect that he had asked Niall Quinn to convey a message that he wouldn’t be a substitute for German game. However, come kick-off, the player was named amongst the substitutes in Ibaraki.
"What happened there was that I spoke to Mick (McCarthy) in the morning and he said that he felt I wasn’t right and he asked me, if I wasn’t feeling 100%, to be honest with myself, and if I didn’t want to be on the bench through the knee not being right, then so be it. And I spoke with Niall and Mick Byrne and everyone, and we decided that maybe the knee wouldn’t be right, and maybe if I didn’t want to be a substitute, then fair enough. So we decided I wouldn’t be a sub.
"But I think Mick likes to have every one on the bench. I think he just wanted me to be in amongst it, and around the lads and get a taste of the atmosphere and the pitch, rather than be the only one not stripping and not involved," added McAteer.
