Manchester United soccer captain and former Ireland skipper Roy Keane was not the only victim after his expulsion from the World Cup squad, according to international team-mate Niall Quinn.
Keane was sent home by Ireland manager Mick McCarthy last week after a profanity-laden tirade during a team meeting that was called
supposedly to "clear the air".
"Roy cannot say that he is the victim," Quinn wrote in his column for the Guardian newspaper today.
"He is one victim. There are others, many others and he will know that."
Keane said in an interview for Ireland's RTV television channel yesterday that he would still like to represent his country at the World Cup finals, and conceded that McCarthy was right to send him home, but refused to apologise for his outburst.
But Quinn, who plays for Sunderland in the English premier league, said he doubted that Keane would be allowed to come back.
"Roy's tirade of abuse last Thursday was a step too far ... once it had finished and Roy had left the room I was the first person to speak.
"I asked if the situation was retrievable but even the greatest optimist on the planet would have known it wasn't. We, the players, knew that we had to back Mick McCarthy 100 per cent and that's what we're doing."
Quinn also said the Ireland squad did not want Keane to be sent home and that the midfielder's assertion that several senior players had conspired against him were misconceptions.
"Roy's apparent belief that senior players had held a meeting with Mick McCarthy prior to the fateful one is totally wrong.
"Steve Staunton, Alan Kelly and myself are dumbfounded by the suggestion of a conspiracy, or to use Roy's words, a betrayal."
- REUTERS
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