SOCCER:THE CELTIC winger Paddy McCourt was said to be "shocked and disappointed" by an attempt to send him bullets through the post. A package addressed to McCourt at Celtic's Parkhead ground was intercepted at a Royal Mail office in Glasgow. Last week, identical parcels sent to McCourt's team-mate Niall McGinn and the club's manager, Neil Lennon, were picked up in Northern Ireland.

McCourt’s agent has said the player is “shocked and disappointed”, with the former Derry City player unwilling to give those responsible the oxygen of publicity. However, McGinn has said: “At the end of the day you are paid to play football and that’s what you have to do. It’s not something that I have tried to think too much about, I’m just concentrating on our game on Saturday.”

McCourt added that Lennon, who has been subject to death threats in the past, was the ideal man to ease him through such troubled times. “He has been through it all with the club and stepped up now as a manager,” McCourt said of Lennon. “He has been through the mill but come out the other end.”

Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington said he would be speaking to both McCourt and McGinn. Worthington said: “It is disappointing when these things happen but the players have my full support and encouragement.”