WATCH: Daddy cool Robbie delivers riposte to Roy Keane’s breastfeeding gag
And so, when asked for his response to Roy Keane’s breastfeeding gag – which, as it happens, was directed more at a journalist’s question than the player who’d just become a dad again – his namesake Robbie yesterday rocked and shocked the press room with: “He’s used to it because he’s got bigger tits than me.”
If the remark perhaps also conveyed a hint that Robbie Keane hadn’t entirely seen the funny side of it all, that may be because the new father had actually made quite a sacrifice to join up with this team mates in Dublin.
“As you can imagine, it’s been fairly hectic,” he said. “Played on Sunday, my wife had a baby at seven o’ clock on Monday evening and I left the hospital at nine o’ clock. Two hours in the hospital — so you can imagine that that went down well. But she understands. A hectic few days but obviously very joyful to have a new baby in our family. And now I’m here with the Irish team and fully focused on being here. I’m always ready to go. Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
Sitting beside him, it was Martin O’Neill who later put Keane’s overall commitment to Irish football in its proper perspective when he spoke about the importance of having the right spirit in the camp.
“I think he epitomises it here,” the manager said. “He’s made a journey halfway across the world to come and play in a match at his particular age now. He’s not 26 or 27, he’s in the latter stages of his career. But he still wants to don the shirt, still wants to be part of a situation where we can qualify for a competition that might be a swansong for him.”
What the manager didn’t add – but which Keane would know is likely to be the case – is that, tonight against Germany, Ireland’s record goalscorer will, at least at the start, be confined to the bench, with Shane Long or Daryl Murphy widely expected to get the nod ahead of him.
His own likely absence was something Keane himself alluded to towards the end of answering a question about Germany’s occasional tendency to overelaborate at the back.
“When you’ve got a team that likes to keep possession of the ball, sometimes they can get a little bit carried away,” he observed. “They’ve got good players, no question about that, but every defender sometimes takes a chance. As a striker, you always have to be on your toes to get that opportunity if it presents itself. Like at the weekend for me. The defender tried a square ball and I was onto it and nicked it and scored. You always have to be on your toes. Whoever is playing, it is something we have to think about.”
But, “whoever is playing”, Keane insisted that this Irish team will not be haunted by what happened the last time the Germans came to town – that grim 6-1 thrashing under Giovanni Trapattoni. “Certainly not. We have different management and staff, new players have come in and I’m certainly not one of those players that looks back. We have a squad of players now who are quite capable of getting something against the Germans.
“They’re still a fantastic team but they certainly have a few flaws. It’s going to be a difficult game but the players are not thinking about what happened here the last time.”
That said, he wasn’t averse to looking back as far as Gelsenkirchen last year.
“Does it give you confidence when you know you got a result away from home against the world champions?
“Of course. We know that we’re quite capable of getting something out of this game, there’s no question about that.”
There was a poignant moment at yesterday’s press conference when a German journalist asked Keane for his thoughts on the distressing news that Gerd Muller – the great German striker who, with 68 international goals, is just one ahead of the Irishman in the record books – is receiving treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
“It’s obviously very, very sad and I wish his family well,” said Keane. “I can only talk about him as a player: he was absolutely fantastic and to have that amount of goals for your country in that amount of games is absolutely incredible. All I can do is wish him well.”
Given; Christie, O’Shea, Keogh, Brady; McCarthy, Meyler; Walters, Hoolahan, Hendrick; Murphy
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