Roy Keane's criticism of Jack Grealish is 'sour grapes' over the midfielder choosing to play for England over Ireland.
This is the view of former Three Lions player Trevor Sinclair who has defended the Aston Villa man.
Keane took issue with Grealish and Raheem Sterling for not taking a penalty in England's shootout loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
Referencing that the final missed spot-kick was taken by 19-year-old Bukayo Saka, Keane said on ITV: "You can't sit there and see a young kid, 19, a child walk up in front of me and I've played a lot more games, a lot more experience."
"If you're Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and have a young kid walk up ahead of you."
Grealish, who worked under Keane when the Corkman was assistant boss at Aston Villa, hit back at the Ireland legend.
"I said I wanted to take one!" Grealish wrote on Twitter.
"The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight! But I won't have people say that I didn't want to take a peno [sic] when I said I will..."
For former England player Sinclair, Keane's criticism of Grealish may be rooted in the Birmingham-born midfielder's decision to play for the Three Lions instead of Ireland after representing the Boys in Green at underage level.
"As we all know, Roy Keane has got an opinion," Sinclair told talkSPORT. "But you can't just accept that knowing it's not the truth.
"Roy Keane's not privileged, we are not privileged at talkSPORT to know what was going on in those meetings when we're talking about penalties.
"I believe Jack. I don't think he's a shrinking violet. He's a player who steps up to the plate. When you want to make a name for yourself, that's when you step up.
"I think with Roy Keane, with the fact Jack Grealish left the Irish squad, went to the England squad, I think there's a little bit of sour grapes there personally."
