Seamus Coleman has blasted claims that Ireland boss Stephen Kenny forced him to do a press conference before the Bulgaria game last September.
Skipper Coleman, 32, lost his place at right-back to Matt Doherty for Kenny's first game in charge and Shane Duffy wore the armband in Sofia in that 1-1 draw in the UEFA Nations League.
Reports emerged in the weeks that followed that Coleman was upset that, as squad captain, Kenny had ordered him to take the eve of match press conference.
But the Everton defender gave his story on the eve of Ireland' s crunch World Cup qualifier against Serbia tonight.
While expected to start against the Serbs, Coleman was asked if it was an issue for him to give the press conference when he didn't know if he was even playing.
“It’s absolutely not one bit difficult whatsoever," he replied.
"There is no ego with me. I read something about me being disappointed with getting told to go to a press conference.
"The manager left me out of his first game, had a decency to call me to his room and explain the situation which I was fine with because Matt was playing very well at the time.
"There is absolutely no ego involved with me and there never has been.
"Then to read that I was disappointed to be asked to go to a press conference when the manager had the decency to say, 'you don’t have to do the press conference if you don’t want to'.
"He said, 'I know it might be disappointing because you’re not playing, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to, if you want to do it it’s fine'.
"My duty as captain, my duty to the rest of the players is to be positive around the place whether I play or I don’t play.
"And I went to that press conference with absolutely no issues whatsoever.
"It was actually very disappointing to read something like that about myself when I’ve got a character in the game that plenty of managers would back - and I think they would say that’s strange or that’s surprising.
"So that was disappointing to read, I have to say."
