Giovanni Trapattoni has reacted to criticism from winger Aiden McGeady – and given the Irish players the day off.

Ireland’s 23 man squad were handed an unexpected day-off on Wednesday after McGeady complained they were tired.

The former Celtic star said the Irish team was ‘jaded’ during Monday night’s scoreless draw with Hungary.

Midfielder Keith Andrews also claimed that the players found the Italian’s training programme in the build-up to the Euros ‘exhausting’.

Trap responded swiftly to the criticism ahead of Sunday’s Euro opener against Croatia in Poznan.
Just hours after they were greeted by a 15,000 crowd for their first training session in Poland, Trap announced a change to his planned itinerary.

Before he announced the day-off, Trap said: “You were in Montecatini, it was a holiday. If they are tired then they must be going out in the town.

“My first concern is not to push the players too hard.”

Now the players have been given a day off, just their second since an advance group met up on

May 17 with the remainder joining in on May 20.

McGeady had said: “The training has been of such a high intensity a lot of players feel a bit jaded.

“A lot of players were saying they were feeling a bit sluggish. Maybe we need to take it a bit easier in training I think.”

Trapattoni added: “We played well against Bosnia and all we did in Italy was rest. Perhaps the delay to the kick-off against Hungary was behind the performance.

“They’re not doing too much. We have just one training session a day. Some go to the gym as well but that’s only if they have that habit and want to do some muscular work.”