Roy Keane RetirementEmmet Malone looks at the career of the former Ireland midfielder on the day of his retirement

Roy Keane makes better exits the second time around. In contrast to the media circus that accompanied November's sudden and acrimonious departure from Manchester United, the announcement yesterday that the 34-year-old has played his last professional game of football was both low key and dignified.

A relatively brief statement on the website of Scottish champions Celtic confirmed what the Corkman had, during the past few months, repeatedly hinted would happen. The Irishman had, it revealed, after considering what was best for his family and taking on board a new batch of medical advice decided to end his playing career.

The move comes after a decade and a half of top-flight British football with Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and, since January of this year, Celtic. During that time he won seven Premiership titles, four FA Cups, a Champions League and, more recently, helped Celtic to a league and League Cup double.

On the international front he played 67 times for the Republic, scoring nine goals. After USA'94 he was named as the country's player of the tournament but, inevitably, it is for his premature departure from the build-up to the last World Cup in Japan and South Korea that he will be better remembered.

Keane is said to have seen a specialist in Cambridge at the end of last week when he was again advised that there would be a price to be paid in later life for attempting to defy the injuries that have plagued him in recent years by attempting to play on for another season.

The news will not have come as a surprise to the Corkman who had already clearly flagged his intention to call it a day back in March when he said he did not wish to spend as much time away from his wife and children as he had been obliged to since January.

"It would either be moving lock, stock and barrel to Glasgow or packing it in," he said then in an interview with The Irish Times. "What I'm doing now I couldn't do next year, especially if we were in Europe next year."

The option of relocating the entire family to Scotland on the basis of one more campaign always seemed a remote one although senior Celtic officials are said to have been hoping he might have stayed on even until Christmas in order to play some part in the club's forthcoming Champions League campaign.

In the end, he said, that after talking to both his own and the club's doctors, "I feel my only option is to retire." He added only his desire, "to send the manager, the staff, players and supporters my very best wishes for the future".

The club's manager, Gordon Strachan, paid generous tribute to the midfielder who managed just 13 games for the Parkhead outfit but still managed to produce an occasional reminder of the quality he possessed, most notably in the January Old Firm game when he looked a class above everybody else on the pitch.

"Roy Keane," said Strachan, "is one of the greatest ever players to grace the game of football. It was fantastic that we were able to bring him to Celtic and it has been a privilege to work with him. Even in his short time with the club, Roy made a great contribution and played an important part in bringing success to the club last season.

"We were delighted to make Roy's dream come true when we signed him for Celtic," he continued in reference to Keane's previously expressed desire to finish his career with the Scottish club, "and we were happy when he made our dream come true, by helping us to win the title.

"While we would have very much liked Roy to continue for the remainder of his contract, everyone at the club fully understands and respects the decision which he has made."

While his time in Scotland will be fondly remembered by supporters who always would have been well disposed towards the former Ireland skipper it is by Manchester United's fans that his many triumphs will be most fondly recalled.

Having moved to Old Trafford from Forest in 1993 for a then British transfer record of £3.75 million, the Irishman went on to become one of the club's most celebrated players ever, playing almost 500 times for the club and helping them to a steady stream of success.

His time there was marked by a succession of controversies generated by his aggressive approach to the game while his sudden departure was pompted by a falling out with Alex Ferguson that resulted from his criticism of other, younger players, but it was that very passion and will to win that did so much to mark him out as a great.

Perhaps his finest night for the club came against Juventus in the second leg of the 1999 Champions League semi-final in Turin where he almost single-handedly hauled United from behind to earn a place in the final.

In the process, however, he received a booking that ensured he would miss the game against Bayern Munich in which the club so dramatically secured the title.