Wednesday 4 October 2017 07:04, UK
Roy Keane believes that Everton need to take responsibility for James McCarthy's injury problems, saying they "have to look at what they are doing themselves".
McCarthy is with the Republic of Ireland squad for their crucial World Cup Qualifiers against Moldova and Wales, despite not having played at all for Everton this season.
Club and country have consistently disagreed over McCarthy's injury problems in recent months, but Ireland assistant manager Keane is clear on where he feels the blame lies.
Keane said: "James seems to be getting a lot of injuries at Everton so I don't think we've anything to be worried about in terms of how much we push James.
"The medical staff are overseeing all of it and are in contact with Everton and all their scientists. I think they've more scientists involved than there needs to be.
"I always think clubs, as much as they look at what we're doing, they certainly have to have look at what they are doing themselves. But James seems pretty upbeat and we're glad to have him here."
McCarthy has recently been struggling with a persistent knee injury, but on Monday, Ireland manager Martin O'Neill refused to rule him out of the upcoming Qualifiers, starting with their game at home to Moldova, live on Sky Sports Football from 7:15pm on Friday.
Keane did admit that the midfielder cannot train fully, and said: "James joined in today, he probably did about 70% of what the other players would have done.
"I spoke to him and he seemed to be ok. We don't want him to over-do it but at some stage you've got to join in, get involved and play some sort of 11vs11 if you can."
Keane appeared to be exasperated with McCarthy's inability to train fully. When asked about the player's workload, he repeated that McCarthy could only do "a little bit" each day, before adding "then he can go back to Everton and we'll see how their scientists deal with it."
It is currently unclear whether McCarthy, who has 41 caps, will be fit for the Moldova game on Friday, with O'Neill saying that they are evaluating his situation on a "day-by-day" basis.
Ireland are currently one place and one point behind Wales, who occupy the play-off spot in Group D with two matches remaining.
