James McClean has publicly criticised Irish boss Giovanni Trapattoni again – and vowed to prove the Italian wrong.

McClean has broken his silence over his lack of action at the European Championships in Poland last summer.

He has criticised Trap for not using him enough and blamed him for his loss of form this season with Premier League Sunderland.

The Derry born winger also claims that his role as a media darling hasn’t helped his cause with Trapattoni.

The latest fall-out comes just weeks after the pair were involved in a furious bust-up when McClean openly criticised the veteran Italian on Twitter – from the team bus in Kazakhstan.

The former Northern Ireland youth international had to apologise in front of his furious team-mates.

He did feature as a sub in the September friendly against Oman but missed the record defeat to Germany with an injury before Trap ignored him for the win in the Faroe Islands despite his return to fitness.

McClean claimed: “The whole Ireland thing is out in public and it’s really knocked my confidence.

“I went to the Euros full of confidence, but it didn’t go too well for me. I thought I had a good season but I still couldn’t get in the team.

“I have never really spoken about the whole Euros experience, or the Ireland thing, in general but, even after the Euros, events have probably knocked my confidence a little bit.

“I know I need to move on from that and prove the Ireland manager wrong and get in to the team.”

McClean has also claimed that constant media attention hasn’t helped his caused with Trap.

He added: “In a way sometimes being the big player people are talking about in the media can be a negative.

“Maybe the manager decided they will not pick the team for him and he is being stubborn. That’s the way it is. That’s just football.”

McClean is keen to kick on with club and country now.

He said: “Coming back, I had an indifferent pre-season. I wanted to come back and kick on from last season but so far I haven’t managed to do that.

“In the same sense, as a team I don’t think we have managed to do that. In my mind in the summer I was believing I should be at least getting a chance. Otherwise why are you in the squad?

“There’s no point sitting here and sulking about it, though, I just have to work hard, prove people wrong and that’s the attitude I have to take.

“The manager here Martin O’Neill is probably the best manager to repair my confidence. He has been top-class with me.”