Former Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy has said that Roy Keane apologised to him over their falling out in Saipan before the 2002 World Cup when the pair met several years later prior to a meeting between the clubs they were then managing, Sunderland and Wolves.

“I rang him up and said: ‘Look, this is going to be a circus if we don’t meet and have a chat,’” he said in an interview with a Sunday newspaper. “So I arranged to meet him. I drove to a hotel in Manchester and we had a chat. We didn’t get into depth about it (Saipan) but he apologised to me and I said: ‘Fine’. And that was it, done. And I’ve felt that way ever since.”

Asked whether he was surprised by Keane’s recent appointment as assistant to Martin O’Neill, McCarthy said: “I’d have to say I was, yeah. I didn’t know they were close. And I guess I was surprised that the marriage could be mended, bearing in mind all of the things that had been said.”