Allardyce trashes Trapattoni over Reid claims

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has launched a stinging attack on Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni after the Italian claimed Rovers midfielder Steven Reid would never fully recover from a knee injury.

Ireland international Reid, 28, has made just two appearances in nearly a year due to a serious knee problem and his comeback has also been hit by an Achilles tendon injury.

Trapattoni recently insisted Reid would find it “very, very difficult” to reach peak form again after such a long time on the sidelines.

But Allardyce is furious with those claims and has demanded an apology from both Football Association of Ireland and Trapattoni himself.

“It’s disgraceful, completely out of order,” Allardyce said on Friday. “He’s not talking correctly in terms of Steven’s injury. What he is saying is completely untrue and something he should apologise for.

“He has undermined us as a football club, undermined Steven as a player and he has really been very, very naughty in what he has said.

“He should make a public apology and hopefully that will be the end of it.

“Steven has had a long haul and he’s trying to resurrect his career and secure a new contract. He also wants to go and play for his country as he has done many, many times and given his all on every occasion.

“There’s no player more honest than Steven and to be dealt that sort of a blow at this stage, when he’s not feeling the best, trying to come back from a big injury and picking up another little niggle, is very, very disrespectful to say the least. It’s disgusting.

“I think his association should bring him to task. I think we as a football club should bring him to task and make him justify what he has said, but the thing is he can’t.

“I’ve never spoken to him and after what he’s said I don’t want to. Steven’s had a very difficult time and the last thing he needed was to sit down and read his international manager trying to write him off.”