Has Keane played his last game for Ireland?

ROY KEANE limped out of Anfield yesterday and out of Ireland's potentially decisive final World Cup qualifier against Switzerland next month with a broken bone in his foot.

Man United officials confirmed Keane broke his third metatarsal foot in a challenge with Luis Garcia, the injury suffered by David Beckham, Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard in recent years.

If the spell out is as lengthy as the initial prognosis indicates, it means the influential Corkman will miss six league games, the October 8th trip to Cyprus and the October 12th Swiss clash.

That could mean the defeat to France earlier this month may have been Keane's final game for the Republic.

That may be of less significance to Alex Ferguson than to Brian Kerr, but the Irish camp were holding out hope last night that Keane could make a quick recovery.

Kerr's assistant Chris Hughton said: "Until we hear officially from Manchester United how long he is going to be out, I don't think we can start to make serious comments.

"I know they are saying two months now but certain players recover quicker than others and I'm sure in the next few days they will have a proper look and be able to say exactly how long he will be out for.

"But at the moment, you don't want any of your players to be out for any amount of time - especially someone who is a regular in your team and Roy is one of those. If we're without him for Switzerland, it will be a blow and it will make the game difficult but ... we must find out the full extent of the injury from United.

"Some players are different to others when it comes to recovering from injuries. Other players have returned quickly from this type of injury and Roy has recovered very quickly from injuries in the past.

"I think everyone is just focussing on the next two games and hopefully we will find out this week whether Roy could be available for the game against Switzerland."