Sunderland winger James McClean has apologised for his outburst after being benched for the Republic of Ireland on Friday.

McClean was furious at not being called off the bench during the clash in Kazakhstan, which the Republic won 2-1 thanks to late goals from Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle.

He wrote on Twitter after the game: "Delighted as a fan we got the win.. Personal level #fuming #f****njoke #embarrassing."

McClean deleted the tweet within 15 minutes, but it had been widely noticed and he returned to Twitter on Saturday morning to issue an apology.

He wrote: "i apologise for my tweet last night, it was stupid, disrespectful and i let my frustration get the better of me which still aint an excuse."