The aftermath of Ireland's defeat at the hands of Poland brought about one of the more ludicrous debates in the storied history of RTÉ's sporting coverage. Darragh Maloney didn't know what he was doing and Irish Sun journalist Neil O'Riordan was a 'genius' due to Eamon Dunphy who was being rather sarcastic when it came to that second comment.
All of this was due to the absence of one man. The thought had been that Wes Hoolahan didn't have the legs to play to games in four days. That was a thought that Dunphy simply could not buy into. Even when Martin O'Neill stated that Hoolahan had picked up a knock, the RTÉ pundit was less than convinced.
Now, speaking from Zenica ahead of tonight's clash with Bosnia, Hoolahan has cleared up exactly what happened in the aftermath of that win over Germany.
I was struggling with a heel injury, so I didn’t train going into the Germany game and I didn’t train after the Germany game.
Me and Martin had a discussion before the game. Obviously, I didn’t train all week and I’d been taking painkillers. I spoke to Martin and Martin was fine. If you’re not fully fit then you don’t want to go into a massive game.
As if to back up his desire to sit out the game, the 33 year old continued;
You want 11 players wanting to do well and all being fit. You don’t want to let your team-mates down. I’m sure Martin appreciated it. He was happy that I spoke to him.
When asked if there was some pressure from Norwich in relation to his injury, Hoolahan was adamant that 'it was totally my call'.
You don't want to take away from the game at all but it would be interesting to see Maloney look for a public apology tonight.
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[Irish Examiner]
