DERRY-born soccer star James McClean has been taunted by a former British soldier on Twitter about the shooting of14 people by the Parachute regiment on Bloody Sunday, days after he was embroiled in a Poppy Day row.
Wigan player McClean, who was yesterday training with the republic of Ireland squad under the new management of Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane, was subjected to the online comments after he failed to line out for his club at the weekend. Rumours later circulated on social media sites that he was "sent home" by his club for refusing to wear a poppy emblazoned club top on remembrance Sunday.
However, his manager Owen Coyle later dismissed the speculation saying McClean did not play because he was injured.
From the staunchly nationalist Creggan area of Derry, he has refused to wear the poppy in the past.
Several remarks were posted on a Twitter account belonging to former Irish Guard Alan McCroary in the hours after the controversy.
From Ballymena in Co Antrim, he claims to have served in Crossmaglen in south Armagh, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an apparent reference to the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, McCroary's Twitter account claimed it was "all in a day's work."
The post read: "We love Sundays. No apologies. No surrender. All in a day's work. Derry Skiprat."
He also posted a picture of what appears to be members of the Parachute regiment posing in front of a wall mural somewhere in the north. Responding to the comments Mr McClean later tweeted "you Understand?" - Which is believed to be a reference to the reason why he refuses to wear a poppy.
In 2010, McCroary was given a three-month suspended sentence for possessing offensive weapons in a public place when his case was heard at Ballymena Magistrates' Court.
The court heard that police received a call from a terrified member of the public saying McCroary had tapped her window with a knife.
When police later challenged him he refused to put down the weapon.
During the trial the court heard that McCroary, who joined the British army in 2004, had taken to drink to cope with the trauma of seeing friends killed in Iraq.
McClean, who moved to Wigan from Sunderland in the summer, was caught up in a storm last year after refusing to wear a Sunderland jersey bearing the poppy in the run-up to remembrance Sunday.