WORLD CUP 2002: Mary Hannigan was listening as the normally retiring fans' favourite came on air to defend the Ireland skipper's actions and question Mick McCarthy's very public airing of private grievances

While several of Roy Keane's former international colleagues have spoken out in defence of Mick McCarthy's decision to send him home from the World Cup, Paul McGrath gave an impassioned defence of Keane on Today With Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday morning and was highly critical of McCarthy's handling of the whole affair.

"I am on Roy's side in all of this," he said. "He's pulled us through this competition and he's got us to the finals and to be treated this way he was made the captain and the captain has to ask questions when he feels things are not right, be it the training camp, the pitches, whatever it is - that's why you pick a captain. He's voiced his opinion and he's been vilified for it.

"It's amazing how quickly everything has been forgotten about, why we're at this World Cup: it's because of Roy Keane. I know there are other players involved, I'm not saying it's a one-man team, but he got us to the finals and all of a sudden because there's a bust-up on the training pitch other names are thrown in to FIFA, it's all done so quickly and so clinically - I think there are different agendas going on here."

"I don't think Mick can lose now, can he? If he gets knocked out in the first round it's Roy's fault, if he gets through the first round he's the hero. I just feel Roy's the scapegoat here. Is this the way you treat one of the best players in the world (for) shouting at the manager when the manager has asked him questions. He obviously wanted answered straight, and he got the answers straight. I couldn't see France doing this to Zinedine Zidane."

"If you had said to Jack Charlton, 'Jack, you're an effing ****er', what would have happened to you," asked Kenny.

"He would probably have asked me was I partaking in drink, for starters. Then he'd have dragged me to one side. I've said all sorts of things to Jack Charlton but he put his hands around my shoulders because he knew, basically, I wasn't like the other players because of my situation and the things that I was doing at the time - he didn't treat me like the other players, he knew the way to calm me down.

"There are ways of calming players down. Roy's a volatile character, I'm not saying he's not, he says what he thinks; whatever he says he'll say it to your face, he'll tell you straight but two minutes later he might change his mind. Why didn't somebody just put an arm around his shoulder and say 'for God's sake Roy, if you're going to call me a ****er let's just get into a room, me and you'.

"Why should Mick conduct all his dealings with Roy in front of every other player and then ask questions that he knows Roy is going to answer straight? He wants everyone to know this is what he's like - he's like that on the pitch, that's why you need him on the pitch."

"People always answered Jack back, that's what you do. That's what a manager wants sometimes. If players, especially the senior players, thought that something was not right of course they'd question Jack, it wasn't like his word was gospel. You've got to be allowed speak out, especially, I would have thought, if you are the captain. That's the captain's role, to air the players' grievances, he's the buffer between the manager and the players.

"If Mick didn't want someone to come and tell him the pitch might wreck a few players' legs he should have chosen someone else as captain, maybe Steve Finnan would have kept quiet, or someone like that. If you ask Roy to be captain he's going to tell you if things aren't right and Mick should know that. I'm sure he does."

McGrath, who admitted that he and McCarthy "didn't have a great relationship" towards the end of his career, spoke to Keane two days before he left for Saipan and said he was in good spirits and looking forward to the challenge ahead.

"He was so upbeat about being the captain of Ireland going to the World Cup - he was absolutely thrilled about it. I'm shattered that six days later he's on his way home."

"I just hope the Irish public will see it for what it is. Roy Keane is the reason we are there and the best chance we had of going further in the World Cup has been snatched away. Everybody knows the sort of man, the sort of player Roy is - he's a winner. He loves things to be right because this is very important competition to Ireland, he wants us to go in there with a chance of winning the thing. And he goes there BELIEVING we can win the thing."

How did McGrath's children react to the news? "They're devastated and they realise it will make it very much harder for us to do anything in the World Cup, and that's no disrespect to the rest of the lads because I'm sure they're going to pull together. It was interesting to hear that they're going around this morning with smiles on their faces - they've just lost their best player.

"If I was in that camp and I had just lost my best player I wouldn't be smiling about it, I'd be kicking whatever around. I wouldn't be happy about it and that's the truth. Maybe that's an indictment of the players - I don't think some of them gave Roy the respect he deserved."

"Maybe Mick just has the idea of going out there, giving his team a free rein and just enjoying the experience of playing against world-class players. But Roy Keane doesn't play like that, I've played him in five-a-sides and he wants to win them because he IS a winner. You see Roy giving a bollocking to the young lads and it can scare you, but he wants them to become better players and he wants them to play at the level he does and there are not too many who can. Maybe you can understand why some of them are a bit stand-offish with him."

Any way back from this? "I wouldn't have thought so. Roy can be a stubborn man and Mick's exactly the same, he's a straight man, he took over from a very big personality and he was able to do the job. I just feel they've both backed themselves into a corner that they maybe can't get out of now. I just wish he was out there. I'm devastated that he's coming back, it's as simple as that."