Steven Reid has still not forgiven Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni for questioning, two years ago, if he would ever play top level football again.
When Trapattoni - who has led an Ireland side without Reid to next summer’s Euro 2012 finals - first started out in charge of the Irish, West Brom man Reid was a key figure in his midfield.
However, the then injury-prone Reid (who was a Blackburn Rovers player at the time) missed a number of games after knee surgery and was subsequently left out of a squad when it was widely considered that he was almost at full fitness.
Trapattoni placed doubt on whether Reid would be able to return to the top level again, comments that were blasted by Reid’s then Rovers manager Sam Allardyce, but which were described as ‘misunderstood’ by members of the Irish backroom team.
The former Millwall man has, indeed, since become a key figure in the West Brom side who look at home in the Premier League, and he admits that the Italian’s comments and particularly his failure to offer an apology for them, still gnaw away at him.
The 30-year-old told Newstalk’s Off the Ball on Thursday evening: “At the time I was trying to get fit again and ultimately to get back into the Ireland team so I didn’t want to get involved in what was said but I was very upset by it.
“It’s not what you need when you are coming towards the end of a 10- or 11-month process of getting back to full fitness.
“Obviously he has said it was a mix-up but it’s hard to simply accept throw-away lines like ‘mix-up’ when you are trying to get your career on track.
“I spoke to Liam (Brady) and Alan Kelly afterwards and they mentioned the language barrier coming into play but they were still really disappointing comments that shouldn’t have been made.
“I don’t think I’ve spoken to him since the Montenegro game (Reid’s last Irish cap in September 2008).”
And, while he has no regrets about retiring from the international game to concentrate on prolonging his club career, Reid repeated recent comments that he would not feel comfortable accepting a place in Ireland’s squad for next summer’s finals as so many other players had played their part in getting the team there.
Indeed, a call-up from Trapattoni seems very unlikely. However, the Baggies man is honest enough to admit that it would be hard to turn down an offer if one was to come his way.
“If the question was asked then it would be a hard thing to turn down, we’d have to look at it,” he added, “but the squad that qualified deserves to be the squad that goes and I wouldn’t want to just jump on board and say ‘I want to go to the Euros’.
“It’s one of those, though. If there were four, five or six injuries in the lead up to it and they were struggling for numbers, it would be difficult to turn down.”