SOCCER/ NEWS ROUND-UP: Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy finally appeared to agree with Roy Keane on something yesterday when he strongly suggested that he too feels the Manchester United midfielder would not play for him in a green shirt again.

"Roy Keane will not be considered," McCarthy said two days before he is expected to name his squad for Ireland's friendly against Finland in Helsinki.

"The player has made it known he does not want to play for his country again until there is a change in the management," he added. "I am still proud to be the manager of my country and looking forward to the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign starting with that game against Russia in Moscow on September 7th."

Nothing in the manager's comments comes as any great surprise. The animosity involved in his dispute with the Corkman in Saipan during the build up to the World Cup finals had always made it extremely unlikely that the pair would work together again and after Keane's remarks in a recent interview with MUTV that he would not consider playing for Ireland again until McCarthy moves on, and remarks by senior FAI officials to the effect that they would not interfere, the manager's remarks simply confirm that he, too, is prepared to accept the status quo and press on without his best player.

Blackburn Rovers manager Graeme Souness has said that he is hopeful Damien Duff will end months of speculation regarding his future by signing a new deal with the Ewood Park club over the coming week or so.

Duff has been strongly linked with Liverpool over the summer but his manager says "we are very hopeful that it (an agreement on a new, extended deal) will happen soon".

The club's chief executive, John Williams, has been negotiating for several weeks now with the 23-year-old who received the Rovers player of the year award before travelling to the World Cup with the Republic of Ireland. The Dubliner's reputation was subsequently greatly enhanced by his performances in Japan and Korea.

Williams said that the two sides are "not miles apart" and that he, too, is optimistic that the player will decide to stay on at the club where he has made his name. Duff himself, who has just returned from a preseason tour in Germany told, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that he was leaving the matter in the hands of his advisors and that his priority was simply to ensure that he is fit in time for Saturday week's first round of premier league games.

"To be honest I haven't really spoken about it with anyone," he said. "We've just been away in Germany in the middle of nowhere for two weeks and the phones didn't even work over there. It's out of my control to a certain extent so I just want to work hard and make sure I'm ready for the start of the season."

Millwall striker Richard Sadlier looks set to return to the Irish squad for the forthcoming friendly against Finland, four months after his dream of playing at the World Cup was ended by a hip injury.

Sadlier's last call up came for the warm-up game against the USA in April which he pulled out of due to a hip injury as soon as he heard that Mick McCarthy had named him. When his club informed him yesterday that he had been included in the travelling party for next Wednesday week's game in Helsinki, the timing was considerably better with the 22-year-old having just taken part in his first couple of proper workouts with his club mates.

"I'm delighted," said the Dubliner last night. "I found out today and I'd only joined full training with the squad for the first time yesterday. But there were no problems, no reaction so yeah, hopefully I'll be fine."

Sadlier's latest opportunity to impress McCarthy comes after it emerged that both Mark Kennedy and David Connolly will miss Ireland's first game of the European Championship campaign due to injury. The pair have both had operations in an attempt to sort out groin and knee problems respectively and each will sidelined for at least 10 to 12 weeks.

New Russian coach Valery Gazzayez has made sweeping changes for his team's friendly game against Sweden, also on the 21st, with many of the side's established regulars during the World Cup campaign failing to make even an extended squad of 59 players. Former skipper Viktor Onopko as well as Yuri Nikiforov, Alexander Mostovoi and Valery Karpin are amongst those left out with a whole string of younger players like Alexander Danishevsky, Dmitry Sychyov and Marat Izmailov featuring instead.

"We're at the beginning of a long road," says Gazzayev. "One which hopefully will take us to the European Championship finals in 2004. It is not a time to look back, we must look ahead and move forward."