Keane for the long haul

Martin O’Neill will this morning have an opportunity to bring clarity to the latest developments involving Roy Keane, when the Ireland manager addresses the media for the first time since his assistant confounded expectations by ruling himself out of the opportunity to manage Celtic.

O’Neill is scheduled to speak after a morning training session in Gannon Park in Malahide, before the Irish squad, with the Corkman firmly on board, fly out to New York this afternoon to begin the last leg of their summer programme.

Keane, however, will not now be clocking up as many air miles as originally thought over the next few weeks.

Yesterday, at an FAI corporate event in London, he revealed he has decided to withdraw from working for ITV as a World Cup pundit in Brazil this month.

Confirming the news, a spokesperson for the station said: “Roy Keane has been a tremendous part of our pundit team in recent years, but we fully understand his decision to concentrate wholly on his coaching. We wish him every success for the future.”

But while that announcement intensified speculation linking him to a role as assistant manager to Paul Lambert at Aston Villa, it has since emerged Keane had been considering dropping his punditry duties to concentrate on his football work for quite some time, and his decision not to travel to Brazil is not directly related to an approach from the Midlands club.

Before the Celtic connection materialised in the wake of Neil Lennon’s departure, Keane and Villa manager Paul Lambert are understood to have discussed the possibility of his coming on board at the Birmingham club, with part of the attraction being that such a role would allow him to continue with his work as Ireland’s number two.

No final decision was made at the time, however — the word is that was issue was “parked” — and the focus on Keane’s future swiftly shifted to Glasgow.

Whatever happens further down the line, Keane’s concentration now is on the US trip which will see Ireland play two games against World Cup-bound opponents.

First up is Costa Rica in Philadelphia in the early hours of Friday night/Saturday morning (Irish time) followed next Tuesday by a meeting with Portugal in New Jersey.

In overnight news from the Irish camp, it was learned that Ciaran Clark will not travel to the States, instead remaining in England for treatment at his club Aston Villa for what is described as “a minor knee injury” he incurred during the warm-up before the scoreless draw with Italy on Saturday.

Jon Walters missed yesterday’s training session with a stomach bug, and the Stoke striker will only report for duty this morning if his condition improves.

Following consultation with O’Neill, it has been agreed that John O’Shea, Seamus Coleman and Damien Delaney will not travel with the squad to States.

Stephen Ward has also spoken to the manager, and may join up with the squad in time for the Portugal game on June 10.

All other players trained with the exception of Wes Hoolahan and David Meyler, who suffered minor knocks during the Italy match and were in the gym rather than on the pitch in Gannon Park.

Both are expected to travel with the squad later today. The same applies to Anthony Pilkington who, in keeping with his long-standing injury management programme, did routine post-game gym work instead of training yesterday.