Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has warned Everton winger Aiden McGeady to get rid of his injury problems or risk wasting his career despite his obvious talents.

The 29-year-old has been constantly blighted with hamstring problems and has failed to find any consistent form for the Toffees since arriving from Spartak Moscow in January 2014.

Since arriving at Goodison Park, former Celtic star McGeady has managed to score just one goal in 33 league appearances for the club.

O'Neill said: "You would think that as a professional player, a professional athlete, that he would be aware that his fitness should be the priority.

"I'm not so sure any of us had been totally aware that this tightening of his hamstring had been going on for a year or something like that.

"I found that pretty strange, I must admit, so on the strength of that I gave him some pieces of advice, 'Go get fit, properly fit'.

"I think he was taking it on board.

"Aiden is no longer 22, 23, 24. You don't want to get to the end of your career and find you had an incredible amount of talent – talent that most people would die for – and you haven't utilised it properly.

"As a club manager I would hate any international manager interfering and saying, 'Nobody is looking after this player'.

"The player has got to take responsibility – you've got to look after yourself.

"It's something he has to look after and monitor himself. That's a long time to be carrying that kind of problem around."