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.