Trusty struck down on McGrath\u2019s arm with his hand and was sent packing after an on-field review and after Celtic\u2019s appeal was turned down on Tuesday \u2013 leaving Trusty missing crucial league games against Rangers, Aberdeen and Motherwell.<\/p>\n
The Parkhead club called for an urgent review of how VAR is deployed.<\/p>\n
![\"fdaf\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023f600-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Ahead of the second leg of their Europa League play-off against Stuttgart in Germany on Thursday night, where the Hoops go into the game following a 4-1 defeat at Parkhead<\/a> last week, O\u2019Neill, 73, was animated in his analysis of the dismissal.<\/p>\n He said: “I did the interview after the game and someone asked me if we were going to appeal.<\/p>\n “I said that I was not sure because appeals in this day and age are seemingly worthless.<\/p>\n “When I got the information from the club coming back on what was said in VAR, I decided, yes, absolutely (we would appeal).<\/p>\n “I\u2019ll tell you why. The referee, as he told me on Saturday, has seen the incident. It is not as if he hasn\u2019t seen it; he was watching it.<\/p>\n “When he is asked by a very excited man in VAR saying, ‘delay, delay, delay, delay\u2019, and they ask him (the referee) and he said \u2018no, it is nothing, I am just going to have a word with the players\u2019, and then he has to trot over to change his mind.<\/p>\n “In time, we won\u2019t need a referee. VAR will do it from wherever they are doing it from because that is what they did.”<\/p>\n The Irishman continued: “They asked the referee to overturn something that he has actually seen. He has seen it and not missed the incident. Of course, that would be a different issue.<\/p>\n “He said it was nothing and that he was just going to have a word with the players. So, I have got a player who will miss three games. It is such a nonsense.<\/p>\n “I am all for people who have missed something dramatic (looking at VAR) in a game that constitutes something they should have a look at.<\/p>\n “But when a referee sees the incident himself and then what he is being asked to do is, \u2018No, you didn\u2019t see that; you saw something else\u2019, \u2013 that has got to be debilitating for a referee. It\u2019s got to be.”<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill confirmed that everybody available except defender Julian Araujo had travelled and refuted the notion that he would play a weakened team with the crunch William Hill Premiership game against Rangers at Ibrox in mind.<\/p>\n He said: “A weakened side? We\u2019ve got very, very decent players here at the football club.<\/p>\n “All players, I think, in the squad have all played in the first team.<\/p>\n “Whatever side we put out won\u2019t be a weakened team because the players are capable of playing.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s been competition for places since I\u2019ve been here, certainly before Christmas.<\/p>\n “Since then, we\u2019ve added Tomas (Cvancara) and a few others to the squad. So there\u2019s good competition for places.”<\/p>\n \n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill claims the process around Auston Trusty\u2019s red card against Hibernian was “such a nonsense” as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-317245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hibernian's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023f00e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCeltic lost 2-1 to Hibs at the weekend<\/p>\n