The curtain comes down again on Keano’s Irish career

IT WAS no surprise when last night Roy Keane announced - for the second time - his retirement from international football in the wake of the Republic of Ireland’s failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Germany.

The player said that he felt the time had come to concentrate on club football for the remainder of his career.

Yet though the news had been widely anticipated, confirmation that Keane’s Irish career was finally at an end brought an added sense of deep anti-climax to a week already dominated by Ireland’s World Cup elimination and predictions that manager Brian Kerr’s reign is at an end.