STEVEN Naismith last night leapt to the defence of his club manager Roberto Martinez over allegations from Republic of Ireland assistant Roy Keane that Everton have been pressurising their players to withdraw from international duty.
Naismith's Glasgow-born team-mate James McCarthy has missed the Republic's last three inter-nationals, including the clash with Scotland at Celtic Park nine days ago, but he, like Seamus Coleman, played for Everton four days after sitting out last month's 1-1 draw in Germany.
While McCarthy's ongoing hamstring problem prevented him from returning against West Ham yesterday, and clubmate Darron Gibson played 70 minutes at Celtic Park despite a lack of match fitness as he recovers from a knee injury suffered on international duty last year, Keane feels something untoward is going on.
"You always get the impression from Everton that Seamus and James are both barely able to walk, that type of thing," he said recently. "So when they actually turn up and they are walking through the reception, it's 'Praise the Lord, it's a miracle'."
But Naismith said: "I have never been asked or questioned about how much I want to come away or should I come away. It has never been spoken about. He [Martinez] has only ever said good things and told me to enjoy it. I think he has even been to a lot of Scotland games. He is all for it and sees it as a great experience for his players.
"On the flip side of that, I know how much James and Seamus want to play for Ireland so it really hurts them when they can't go away. They are two of the best pros and guys who want to play at the highest level. Those two players would do what they can to play."
The 3-1 defeat to England was sobering after the euphoria of the Republic of Ireland match, with Scotland now having four months to reflect on it before the two remaining qualifying matches this season - the home meeting with Gibraltar in March and the return match against the Republic at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on June 13.
"The time that we are going to have before the next international will allow us to reflect on how good a couple of years it has been and how good a start it has been to this campaign," said Naismith. "But we are just about halfway so we know that in the next competitive matches we need to be thinking about how good a feeling it was after the Ireland game and how hard we worked to get that win. That has to be the focal point and how we go forward and try to get to these finals at the end of it.
"Going into all the games, it's wins we are looking for, especially now we have played everybody in the group and you have a feeling for it. We definitely believe we can go to the games and get something out of them, but we will need to work as hard as we did last Friday. That is a minimum."
Group D remains the most intriguing of Euro 2016 sections. The Republic of Ireland square off with Poland at the end of March, when Scotland will be looking to take care of Gibraltar. While Germany remain favourites to win the group, Naismith is determined they will have to do it the hard way.
"Germany will still fancy their chances to come top, but when you have the Republic of Ireland, Poland and ourselves all showing what we are a capable of then it will be tough for them," he said. "They will be miles ahead in terms of being favourites but we will be doing all we can to keep them in that dogfight."
Naismith returned this week to a divided dressing room at Everton, taking a few pelters from England team-mates such as Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and Ross Barkley, but also enjoying bragging rights over McCarthy, Coleman and Aiden McGeady. "It isn't much fun for me on one hand," he said, "but at least I can slag the Irish boys, can't I?"
Stewart Fisher
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