Roy will do what doctor orders

IN relaxed and reflective mood, Roy Keane was generous with his media time in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s memorable testimonial at Old Trafford.

First, he did a formal press conference, sitting in front of a Manchester United backdrop for the last time. (At least as a player, sez you).

Then he moved out into a corridor where a scrum of Sunday hacks were lying in wait with more questions. And, finally, just when he thought he could make good his escape, he turned around to be confronted by the Irish press contingent, eager for a few quotes.

The Cork man responded to everything thoughtfully and at length — declining only to comment in detail on the stand-off between Alex Ferguson and Ruud van Nistelrooy — but at the end of all that dialogue, there was still no clear-cut answer to the biggest teaser of the night: what will Roy Keane do next? In terms of Keane’s immediate future in football, The Clash years ago posed the key question: should I stay or should I go? And a band from the blue part of Manchester, may have given the best answer to date: definitely, maybe.

Keane is the man who virtually made a mantra of the phrase “never say never” and it’s precisely his capacity to confound expectation which gives the Celtic faithful the best grounds for hoping that he will see out one more season there.

Reports at the weekend that Keane had found himself an apartment in Edinburgh also seemed to support the idea that he could be there for the longer haul, a view amplified in the same accounts by the proverbial “sources close” to Roy Keane.

But only one man will make the final decision and, from what he was saying on Tuesday night, Roy Keane sounds to me like he’s ready to hang up his boots. Even those who were recently talking up his chances of playing on were careful to add a health warning, and it was a point the man himself emphasised at Old Trafford when he said that an imminent check-up by the surgeon who operated on his hip would be critical.

In short, his body will tell him what to do.

“Absolutely,” he confirmed, “because if you listen to the heart you’ll carry on for as long as you can. And I’m 35 in August, it’s not as if I’m bloody 28. I’ve been very lucky and I don’t want to go over the mark and pay for it maybe in a year of two. Because they would be the consequences, no doubt about that.

“Of course, a lot of people say you should play on as long as you can but that’s not my mentality. I want to play at a level I’m happy with. And if the consequences of playing another season were to bring on a lot more damage more quickly then I’d have to weigh it all up. But again I’ll have a good chat with the surgeon. I won’t be leaving the decision until the day before pre-season starts. I’m sure it will be made sooner rather than later.”

Still, Hoops fans will eagerly point to the sense of “unfinished business” — a familiar phrase in the Keane lexicon — implicit in other remarks he made on the night.

“I don’t think I’ve done myself justice at Celtic,” he said at one point. “I’ve had a few injures and I’m sure that’s from the hip. I also didn’t do myself any favours with all the travelling back and forth and if I play on it will be all or nothing.” All or nothing — since when has it been any different for the warrior Keane? But this may be one final battle — a conflict with time and with his own human limitations — in which discretion will prove to be the greater part of valour. Not even the prospect of Champions League football, he made clear at Old Trafford, would be enough to counter the counsel of the medics.

And it’s hard to see how another season in the hurly burly of the SPL would be just what the doctor ordered. Far better for Keane, surely, to take a period out of the game for some much needed family time and a little rest.

But not necessarily better for Celtic, of course, which is why the Hooped hordes were chanting his name more as a plea than a farewell in the Theatre of Dreams. The man himself might think that a below par player would be of no great help to Gordon Strachan’s men but many others would argue that, by Keane’s own demanding standards, par is a level to which most of his contemporaries can still only aspire.

No-one is ever going to break the bank betting on what Roy Keane will do next, but it’s hard to shake the conviction that Tuesday night wasn’t just about closure at Old Trafford but about closure, full stop.