Keane’s knee injury not thought to be serious

THE injury which ruled Robbie Keane out of Tottenham’s pre-season trip to Portugal is not thought to be serious, it emerged last night.

Republic of Ireland skipper Keane picked up a knee problem, which meant he did not travel to Lisbon for last night’s friendly against Benfica, which Spurs won 1-0.

The striker has been repeatedly linked with a move away from White Hart Lane since spending the second half of last season on loan at Celtic.

Meanwhile Glenn Whelan will miss Ireland’s prestigious friendly with Argentina next week with a calf injury. The Dubliner will miss the rest of Stoke City’s pre-season schedule but hopes to be fit to travel to Wolves for their opening Premier League game. Whelan, 26, limped out of Saturday’s friendly with Burnley after an awkward turn.

“It felt really bad at the time,” the former Sheffield Wednesday player said.

“But over the last couple of days it’s eased off — I’m hoping it’s not as bad as first feared.

“It’s obviously a bad time to get injured. You put in all that hard work over the last four or five weeks and then you get something like this so close to the season.

“But I feel pretty lucky to have got a couple of 90 minutes under my belt, so it’s not a case of chasing fitness now, but just maintaining it.

“Hopefully, everything will be okay for the first game.”

Whelan must now give up the opportunity to play in Ireland’s first game at the Aviva Stadium.

“If I’d been fit, I’d have loved to have played,” he said. “But the way things are at the minute with the injury, I’m going to have to pull out of that one. I don’t think the manager would be too pleased if I said I wanted to play in it so close to the new season.”