Centre stage to karaoke stage for Keane

TONIGHT won’t come for Robbie Keane, the man who reportedly got up and sang Garth Brooks’ Tomorrow Never Comes, not to mention, Mustang Sally, with the house band in a pub in Malahide on Sunday night.

That was the first decidedly unofficial confirmation that the skipper’s leg muscle injury was more serious than we’d been led to believe after Friday night’s game in Andorra. Keane’s freelance music gigsubsequently became a one-day wonder on Twitter and the Joe Duffy Show but, it wasn’t until Giovanni Trapattoni came before us yesterday that all was finally revealed.

With a grin, the manager admitted that “maybe I was a liar” when, as late as Sunday, the media were being told that Keane was still in with a chance of making tonight’s game.