Ireland’s team manager was immediately confronted with the clash in Saipan when he chaired his first press conference with Ireland since the World Cup.

Surprisingly he responded to the press enquiries, even though he was repeatedly at pains to stress he did not wish to enter into a discussion on what had happened at the World Cup and what had emerged since.

He had refused to offer any response to questions dealing with the clash with Keane while the World Cup was unfolding, countering any questions by stating flatly that he had dealt with the issues at the time and that he would make no further comment.

It was suggested to him yesterday that some of the comments in newspaper quotations from Keane’s book reflected "harshly" on him.

"I am sure he (Keane) means well. I have no response to it and while it may be judged as harsh, those comments are not only down to himself, or so I am led to believe.

"I cannot do anything about it, I cannot change anybody’s opinion of me so I just want to get on with doing the job with the players who have just done so well at the World Cup."

He was asked whether he would respond in his own book which is scheduled for publication at the end of September and he said: "The book is a separate issue. It is my reflections on the World Cup, my diary of the World Cup and that’s for me to do. Just like everybody else you will see that when it comes out.

"We are after the World Cup and I am not answering stuff from back then which I think I addressed at the time and whatever people had to say about me afterwards I can do nothing about that."

Asked whether he had regrets about the row with Keane he said: "I would not have wanted it to happen. It happened and because of what did happen and what has happened afterwards I have no regrets about it. It isn’t something I regret, that is for sure."

As to whether if he had the time over again he would change anything he said, after a brief pause: "I would have probably smiled a bit more. I was trying my best and at times it wasn’t working."

Keane intensified the nature of his row with McCarthy in the excerpts of his book and much prominence was given to his assertion that he would not play again for Ireland while McCarthy was in charge.

"He said he was always going to retire after the World Cup. The fact that he said he would play again if I was not the manager, well there is nothing I can do about that," McCarthy said.

"We are always entitled to change our minds and our opinions and Roy is no exception. He can change his mind and I can change mine. But he said it himself, he will not play for Ireland as long as I am manager or coach, he made that announcement and I do not see any reason for dragging it up."

He conceded that the issue with Keane will be resurrected regularly while he remains in charge and he said: "It will be continuously raked up. Two years ago when we played Holland the pressure was on for different reasons and that pressure will always be there. But we deal with that as football managers and I am no different."

He sounded a little wistful when he suggested he had not been given the credit he believed was due for Ireland’s good sequence of recent results "You will be judged on results and I find it strange that when the results were not as good as they are now, I was judged on those.

"People were constantly being given the table of matches won, drawn and lost but when the results are better now and after we’ve had a good run of results, with not so many defeats, those tables are no longer being presented and I find that a little unfair.

"I find we are talking about other issues again, about things other than football and I would prefer if we were to talk about the 16 players who are here now with us and what I expect from the match against Finland.

"I think we have come from a very, very good World Cup competition with these players and I would rather talk about that."

In the meantime, the legal battle between Roy Keane and Alf Inge Haaland will boil down to a judge’s assessment of conflicting medical evidence.

Haaland and Manchester City are set to pursue Keane through the courts following his admission that he deliberately set out to injure the Norwegian midfielder at Old Trafford last year.

A compensation claim of up to stg£6million is expected to be lodged against Keane and Manchester United, with Haaland facing the prospect of being forced into retirement because of his failure to recover from a long-standing injury to his left knee.

Although Keane’s horrific tackle caught him on the right, Haaland is expected to argue that the impact exacerbated problems in his other leg.