Former Blues boss Roy Keane has reignited his long-running spat with his ex-Town skipper Jon Walters.
The pair famously fell out and almost came to blows during their time together at Portman Road in 2010, the former Manchester United man having accused Walters of trying to engineer a move away from the Blues. He stripped Walters of the captaincy and left him out of the side before the striker was eventually sold to Stoke City.
The duo were eventually reunited when Keane was appointed assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland but with relations remaining strained, a Whatsapp voice message outlining the details of a row involving them and Harry Arter having been leaked in September last year.
Speaking at the Cadbury's Off The Ball roadshow in Dublin, Keane took aim at several players among them Walters, even making reference to the Birkenhead-born forward’s TV interview earlier this year in which he talked about his daughter’s scoliosis and the deaths of his mother when he was a child and more recently his older brother and unborn child.
"He talks a good game," Keane said of Walters. "Imagine if he'd won a trophy. He goes on the TV about how he was harshly treated by me. He's crying on the TV about his family situation.
"You know, how about lying low for a while, taking it easy. Have a look at his medals? Wouldn’t take long.
"Ironically two or three years ago when his career was coming to the end, he went on loan, he went to Ipswich on loan. I was laughing my head off.
"We got beaten by Wales. Jon played. Jon didn't have a good game. Wardy played, he didn't have a good game. They need to go back see how bad they were.”
Ireland lost that match 4-1 to Wales in Cardiff in the UEFA Nations League and it turned out to be Walters’s final international before he retired in March due to injury.
Keane was reminded that Walters scored a decent number of goals, 14, in his 54 games for Ireland but said: "How many years ago is that? How long is he going to live off that? A certain player [Jason McAteer] scored against Holland and he still is.”
Walters, who spent a brief spell back at Portman Road on loan from Burnley last season before succumbing to injury, responded to Keane’s latest comments via a Twitter selfie.
Insert face here 🤨 pic.twitter.com/8yRrUU7OzY– Jonathan Walters (@JonWalters19) September 5, 2019