|
"Roy has retired from international football, his decision is final," a friend of Keane's said last night. "He made the decision for football reasons and he has no cause to change it."
Within days of Ireland's failure to qualify for the summer's World Cup, Keane publicly announced that he would, as had been suspected, quit international football. Had Ireland qualified he would have quit after the World Cup anyway, so there is no chance of him returning at this stage.
Sources within the FAI insisted last night that Staunton's comments were deliberately vague as he did not want to be put in a position where "he announced his squad live on television". They also confirmed that Keane's return was not part of the new manager's thinking.
Staunton was at Elland Road yesterday to watch Liam Miller, Jonathan Douglas and even Gary Kelly, who, it has been suggested, may be coaxed out of retirement, although he is a year older than Keane.
But friends of Staunton were suggesting last night that the new Irish manager will be eager to introduce young players as he plans for his four-year term. Privately, it is a strategy Keane understands. "Staunton has to look forward without a number of the old players, including Roy," the friend of Keane said.
Keane will be out for two months with a recurrence of a hamstring injury that has plagued him in recent years. He will miss the Old Firm game at Ibrox after limping out of training yesterday and Celtic believe he will not be able to return until mid-March.
It has been a disastrous move for Keane, whose first match was the Scottish Cup defeat at Clyde. He made his home debut last weekend before his latest injury which will result in him missing the decisive stage of the season.
He would, too, be unavailable for Staunton's first match on March 1 against Sweden in the unlikely event that he expressed a desire to return.
Unlike his previous departure in Saipan, Keane has made the decision purely for football reasons and even if Kerr, who he is believed to have worked closely with, had stayed as manager, his decision would have been the same.
For that reason, Keane will not be influenced by any public clamour resulting from Staunton's offhand comments. The pair no longer talk after the events in Saipan when Keane was furious that Staunton had so quickly sided with the manager. Keane later called Staunton a "muppet" in a newspaper interview.
Since his appointment, Staunton has been eager to move on from the events of the past four years, answering each question with the phrase "the past is the past".