Martin O'Neill has hit back at former Celtic star Frank McAvennie over his criticism of Auston Trusty. McAvennie has gotten into choppy waters over comments he made on his podcast, calling out Celtic defender Trusty and suggesting he was taking too much time off following the death of his father.
Trusty was given time off following his father's death, and after he returned to training, O'Neill rightly gave him another weekend off to attend the celebration of his father's life back home in the US.
But McAvennie questioned 'how much time do you want off?' and when pressed on it by presenter Simon Houston, who did not agree, reminding McAvennie that everyone grieves differently, the former Hoops star suggested that was a 'woke' idea.
McAvennie has since produced two statements, one that simply acknowledged the comments could be offensive, but he then followed that up the next day by acknowledging that wasn't good enough and expressed his apologies.
O'Neill was asked about the controversy during his latest press conference, and he said: "That's really poor taste. I know I've said some things and ended up backtracking. But that's a family bereavement.
"And that's making someone's mind up about how long they should be grieving and stuff like this here. That's not on. Trusty asked me for some time [off]. Even if it's a celebration [of his late father’s life], it doesn't matter. The father's been in poor health for quite some considerable time.
"And I know there was a stage where he thought that he wasn't going to see it through. But I'm with Trusty the whole way there. Because I wouldn't want anybody to tell me that I had to grieve over a brother or sister dying. And I've had that.
"He's 28 years of age. And he's taken it badly. Honestly. I've afforded him all the time he wants. At some stage, obviously, he'll be coming back. But at the end of the day, I've given that time because I know that we might be talking about different eras or whatever the case may be. That's nothing to do with it. This is a family thing. And that's not right.
"So, Trusty has got the time and he's got the backing of myself and he's got the backing of the club."
It's refreshing to hear O'Neill's approach to man management, which has been a key reason to his success during his career.
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