Sports Digest: Irish defender Sean St. Ledger Sorry for Kevin Foley axe

Irish defender Sean St. Ledger has offered his sympathy to Wolves star Kevin Foley, axed from the Ireland squad at the last minute by manager Giovanni Trapattoni last week.

Trap opted to include Paul McShane and not Foley when he had to submit his final 23 man squad for the Euros tournament to UEFA.

Foley said he felt “betrayed” by Trapattoni and may not play for Ireland again as long as he is manager.

And St. Ledger said, “I am sure his emotions at the moment are taking over. I am sure he will have a word with his family and talk it over and I am sure he will make the right decision.

“And I think you just have to respect that if he doesn’t want to. I think all the boys want him to play again because he is a great lad and he is a very good player at the same time.

“His recent injury may just have come at the wrong time. He obviously proved his fitness but the manager made his decision and you just have to go with it.”

St. Ledger added, “It is tough because everyone really, really likes him. It’s tough, don’t get me wrong. And everyone feels for him.

“If it was me, I would be absolutely gutted and obviously he was very, very emotional. So it is a tough one to call.”
 
Bilic Respect

CROATIAN boss Slaven Bilic has denied rubbishing Ireland’s European Championships hopes and admits they will be formidable opponents in Poznan on Sunday.

Bilic was in the stands as Ireland drew 0-0 with Hungary in Budapest on Monday night.

He told Irish reporters afterwards, “In Croatia, someone has not twisted my words, but made it up like I said that you don’t have a good team and blah, blah.

“It’s totally nonsense. I have big respect for your team -- we played against your team last summer.
“It’s an unbelievably competitive team. They are very solid, they play very simple football, they don’t take a lot of risks.

“But they are still dangerous enough with some really good forwards -- two strikers and two wide men who are very quick. One on one, they can decide a game.”

A former teammate of Richard Dunne’s at Everton, Bilic was impressed with the Irish defender again on Monday.

He added, “It’s very hard to get a clear chance against them. Richard Dunne is a leader, he’s the organizer. He’s a great player.”

“I admire him. He was young when we played together at Everton but you could see he was going to the big stage and the big time, and I’m so glad for him. He’s a great guy.”
 
Holy Trap

IRELAND boss Giovanni Trapattoni has confirmed that he will sprinkle Holy Water around the team dug-out at the 2012 European Championship finals.

Trap said: “Yes, I will do it, I will sprinkle it everywhere. It’s not so God will help us to win but to offer us protection against jinxes.”
 
Soccer Shorts

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Nster.com