Keane set for Champions return

Alex Ferguson has pencilled Roy Keane in for a Champions League comeback against Bayer Leverkusen next month.

The Manchester United skipper is currently deciding whether to appeal against the five-match ban and £150,000 (€239,000) fine handed down by the Football Association on Tuesday, which rules him out of domestic action until the beginning of December.

Keane, in the final stages of his comeback from a hip operation, is however eligible for Champions League combat, although the forthcoming trips to Olympiakos and Maccabi Haifa will come too soon for the 31-year-old.

However, providing United have grabbed the single point required to ensure a place in the second group stage, Keane is earmarked for an Old Trafford comeback against the Germans.

“Roy is coming along great in his fitness,” Ferguson told the Manchester Evening News.

“He is doing remedial work in the gym at the moment and we are hoping that in two weeks’ time he will be back in football training and then he’ll work towards a match comeback.

“We were aiming for him to return for definite against Liverpool on December 1 but depending whether we appeal he will now be unavailable for that game at Anfield.

“However, there is a possibility that we could ease him back against Bayer Leverkusen at Old Trafford.

“If we have qualified for the second group stage by that final match of the first phase then it would be a nice way of easing him back into things.”

Keane is due to meet with United officials today to decide his next course of action, having been given until October 29 to respond to his punishment.

Despite the midfielder’s dismay at the severity of the sentence, it is thought he will accept the penalty and put an end to one of the most turbulent periods of his career.

Keane will not play any part in the Premiership encounter with Fulham at Loftus Road on Saturday, with Ferguson due to take a body count of his international stars today to see who was available for the capital trip.

Chief concern centres around top scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy, who flew home early from the build-up to Holland’s Euro 2004 qualifier in Austria after a recurrence of his recent hamstring problem.