Ireland had been urged to see a psychologist by Sven-Goran Eriksson, the City manager, who criticised the player's "stupidity" for lying about the reasons for his withdrawal from the Ireland squad before their European Championship qualifying match away to the Czech Republic a week ago.

And The Times says on Ireland's home page on the Bebo website, which allows users to interact with each other and to share photographs as well as their musings on life, Ireland, who calls himself "Daddy Dick", says that "football is s***" and asks "why did I get stuck doin [sic] it?".

The tone appears to be more flippant than serious, but, given that he earns more than £10,000 a week and is widely regarded as one of the most promising youngsters in the Barclays Premier League, it is a comment that is unlikely to do much for his reputation.