LONDON, June 18: Former Republic of Ireland Ireland captain Roy Keane will not play for his country again, Irish football chief Brendan Menton was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Menton said that Ireland’s impressive performance at the World Cup finals showed the squad could prosper without their leading player.

“This team will go on without him,” Menton, general secretary of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) told the Daily Mail. “There is a limited life cycle to a player’s career and it had to come at some stage. It happened to be sooner than expected but so be it.”

The Manchester United midfielder, who said he would never play for Ireland again under McCarthy, was given the chance to return to the squad but refused to apologise for his outburst.—Reuters