Hip op set to KO Keane

Roy Keane looks set to be sidelined for three months by an operation on his troublesome hip injury.

He is already facing a three-match ban after being sent off for elbowing Jason McAteer in Saturday‘s 1-1 draw at Sunderland.

And he could still face a Football Association wrap for comments made in his autobiography about a horror tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland in April 2001.

The timing would seem ideal, therefore, for Keane to render such suspensions meaningless by taking time out of the game for his own well-being.

United boss Alex Ferguson told The Sun: “The hip problem has been troubling Roy for quite some time.

"We have deided that now is the time to get the operation done. We hope we will have him back by December for the main part of the season.”

Ironically, United are set to lose their captain as a result of the World Cup finals this summer, at which Keane infamously walked out on the Republic of Ireland squad following a bust-up with Mick McCarthy.

“I wanted him to have the operation in the summer but he wanted to go to the World Cup,”.Ferguson told the Daily Mirror.

“When he came home in the midst of all that carry on, it proved too much of a distraction for him to have the operation.

“Roy played at Sunderland and did magnificently without an injection but by the end he was in some pain.”