Mick McCarthy said yesterday he feels Roy Keane has played his last game for Ireland, insisting that as far as he is concerned, he accepted the Corkman's original declaration that he intended to retire from the international game after the World Cup finals. Emmet Malone reports.

When asked about the criticisms contained in the extracts of Keane's forthcoming autobiography published in newspapers over the past 10 days, and the comments made by the midfielder in a number of recent interviews, McCarthy looked uncomfortable and seemed unsure of how to handle the question at yesterday's press conference in Dublin.

"I'm sure he means well," he joked lamely, before adding: "I have no response to it, whatever any person's opinion of me is - I can't change that. I prefer to just get on dealing with the players I have got and we've done fairly well so far actually."

But when asked subsequently whether he felt the Manchester United skipper had, like Niall Quinn and Steve Staunton, retired from international football during the summer, the Ireland manager replied: "Yeah, well he did, didn't he.

"He told me that he was retiring and then he said that he wouldn't play international football as long as I was manager sowell, he did, didn't he."

McCarthy added: "It was a closed issue during the summer and I accept his decision".

He declined to comment on whether he intends to answer any of the criticisms levelled at him by Keane in his own World Cup diary, currently being ghost-written by journalist Cathal Dervan.

He did say the book would be his account of his time at the finals tournament.