Keane won't rush back from latest injury blow
He missed Tuesday night's Worthington Cup draw with Blackburn after limping out of the 4-1 win over Portsmouth at the weekend with a tight hamstring. It was only Keane's fifth game back after spending four months on the sidelines following hip surgery. After watching his side struggle without their inspirational leader, manager Sir Alex Ferguson has suggested Keane may be fit for the trip to West Brom on Saturday.
However, the 31-year-old is not willing to put a time-scale on his recovery, although he does not believe the problem will be long term.
"It's just a bit of a hamstring strain," he told the club's official website, www.manutd.com
"I felt it after about half an hour of the Portsmouth game and I thought at half-time that I didn't want to make it any worse. It didn't feel right so I came off. It's still a bit sore now so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
"I've had hamstring strains in the past and you think you're better and come back too early, then you end off worse than you were at the start, so I just have to be careful.
"The key word at the moment is patience over the next few days and we'll see what happens. It's frustrating." The setback marks another low in a year which saw Keane walk out on his country's World Cup campaign and then find himself hit by a five-match ban and record fine following comments made in his autobiography. Man City are set to make a final decision on whether to take legal action against Keane for his tackle on Alfie Haaland in the Old Trafford derby in April 2001, since when the Norwegian has not completed a full game.
