Ireland snub continues for Sunderland playmaker Reid

Sunderland midfielder Andy Reid remains on the outs with Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni.

Last month, Steve Bruce, Sunderland's manager, said Reid probably needed to apologise to Trap.

But the Ireland boss insisted that this was not necessary. Trap said: "It is not this. What happened is in the past and has occurred many times in my career. It happened to me with Michel Platini when he was a player and to many other players too.

"I plan to find new players and will look around but in friendlies, I will only make a few changes because too many will affect the result - and friendly results count now because of the seedings.

"I would like to look at Shane Long, Andy Keogh and Keith Treacy.

"And I would like to find another striker because we only have two strikers and though Caleb Folan was good in Bari, he is injured quite a bit."