THE EXTENT of Roy Keane's international suspension following his 89th minute dismissal against Russia on Wednesday night should be known next week.
The Manchester United mid fielder will definitely incur a one game ban and so miss next month's match away to the Czech Republic, with his availability against Portugal and Croatia in doubt.
Last Wednesday's friendly fell under the jurisdiction of FIFA, whose disciplinary committee will look at the referee's resort when they met within the next week.
If the Dutch official Hugo Luyten, cites Keane "for violent conduct" then FIFA reserves the right to extend the ban to beyond one game, normally with a ceiling of three matches.
According to a FIFA spokesperson in Geneva yesterday, article 2.6 of the world governing body's rules states that a suspension will be "imposed on a player being sent off in a friendly match between two representative teams from different national associations to be served for the next match or matches of the same representative team."
It is also conceivable that FIFA's disciplinary committee might take such a dim view of Keane's actions that they would extend the ban to incorporate the Republic of Ireland's opening World Cup qualifiers though this is highly unlikely.
More worrying in the light of Keane's fourth sending off and fifth suspension in under a year is the sudden transformation of the Corkman's intemperate persona from Manchester United to the green of Ireland. It wasn't always like this.
Before Wednesday Keane was cautioned only twice in 29 outings for his country. Fellow players don't recall whether he kept a rein on his emotions voluntarily or following private advice from Jack Charlton.
Similarly, Nottingham journalists I spoke to yesterday could not recall him being sent off for Forest. "Forest have always prided themselves on their disciplinary record. Cloughie would never have stood for it".
However it has long been felt that Alex Ferguson indulges in tee excesses of Keane and other fiery players at Old Trafford generating a bunker mentality which also served Aberdeen so well.
Public loyalty is all well and good, but Ferguson's defence of Keane after his first dismissal in the FA Cup semi final against Crystal Palace for stamping on Gareth Southgate bit was an impulsive reaction to being badly fouled" has been rewarded with two more dismissals this season. Against Blackburn Keane was booked twice, and against Middlesbrough he punched Jan Fjortoft when also having his shirt tugged.
This resulted in three and four game suspensions with a further one game ban coming up against Coventry for accumulating penalty points. In addition to those two cautions against Blackburn, Keane has included another live bookings this season, taking his tally to 23 in under three seasons at United.
Ironically, Keane had commented on Tuesday that he had "only" been booked twice in his last 11 games "which is good for me. He added "but I better not say anything or I will he sent off next week. Interestingly, this seemed to imply that Keane only regarded it as a possibility when playing for United.
Keane now has a reputation, which the blinkered at Old Trafford and even a moronic minority in Dublin play up to. In a pre-season friendly against Shelbourne the one chant of "Kean-o Keane-o" followed an alteration with Brian Flood.
After the cup semi final sending off Ferguson said he's only 23 - On Wednesday night McCarthy said "he's only 24".
