If it’s broke, don’t fix it: Keogh focused on task at hand

When Richard Keogh sits before you with his right hand almost totally encased in a protective cast and bandaging, he looks for all the world like a player who is about to tell you how gutted he is to have to sit out the next game through injury.

But the Derby County defender isn’t bemoaning the cruel hand fate has dealt him: Instead he’s fully prepared to answer Ireland’s call in Gibraltar on Saturday if Mick McCarthy opts to give him the nod. The 32-year-old broke a bone in the hand during the scoreless draw with Stoke in the Championship last Wednesday but, after taking medical advice, elected not to have the surgery which would have ruled him out of the Irish squad.

Call it a case of if it is broke, don’t fix it.

Recalling the moment when the freak damage was done, Keogh said: “It was just the way the ball was spinning or the pace of the ball and it just slapped my hand basically. It went all floppy.

“I thought I’d dislocated my finger and I was just kind of pushing it around — probably a bit of stupidity and adrenaline. I tried to strap my fingers because there was one I felt wobbling around a little bit but it didn’t do too much to help, to be honest. But it’s just part of the job. I carried on and then after the game it was a bit sore so I went for the x-ray and found out I’d broken it.” As you do...

“Surgery was an option but the hand surgeon was fantastic, he said I could have the surgery and still come get back quite quickly but potentially I might miss a few games.

“So I said with these games coming up and a big end to the season with Derby, I’d rather just take the risk a little bit and try and carry on and keep playing. It’s settled down, I re-x-rayed yesterday and the x-ray was a lot better already and the hand surgeon was pretty pleased and pretty confident.

He’s obviously seen that injury quite a few times and said people have played with it before.

Keogh admits that not wanting to miss out on the start of Mick McCarthy’s second coming as Ireland manager was a factor in his determination to show up for work this week.

“A little bit of that, I’m excited to work with the manager,” he said. “I’ve played against his teams a lot over the years and heard some great things from players who have worked with him. And he knows me very well. So, from my point of view, there is a lot of excitement in that sense of wanting to work with him.

“But just playing for Ireland means a lot to me. Unless they physically said to me I couldn’t come or I had to do something different, I was always going to turn up. If I have to wear a splint and tape it, that’s what I’ll do.”

Which, on the face of it, contrasts rather starkly with Patrick Bamford’s decision to concentrate on club rather than country — if the Leeds striker does indeed commit to Ireland — at least for the remainder of this season.

“I’ve played against Pat, I’ve played with Pat and he’s a good player, he can score goals. He would offer something different to our group, so I can understand why the manager is looking at different options. And I don’t think the manager would have spoken to him if he didn’t indicate that he wanted to play for Ireland. It’s down to him now. There are only so many phone calls the manager can make until he makes that decision.”

For his own part, Keogh goes into the new international year hoping Ireland can put a truly bad one firmly behind them.

“No player wanted to have the year that we did. The disappointment of not qualifying for the World Cup probably hit the squad harder than we thought as players. It took us a little while to get over it and then obviously with the Nations League we could have performed better in that. Us as players, we’ve got to step up.

“With Martin (O’Neill), a lot of these players owe him a lot because he gave us a lot. We went to a major tournament, we had some great results along the way, including at the Euros, so we’re grateful for that.

“But it’s in the past now. It’s not about what happened before. it’s about what happens now. There’s a manager coming in who has got a clear way of what he wants to do and that’s what we are working towards.

“The lads are really excited to get out there and really attack the campaign and try and qualify for another tournament.”