Quinn could play in three weeks

NIALL QUINN, the Sunderland striker, could be playing again within three weeks after undergoing a knee operation on an injury which, in mid-November, was thought to be threatening his career.

It means that he now has every chance of proving his fitness in time for the critical World Cup qualifying game against group favourites Romania in Bucharest on April 30th.

On his own admission, however, it is unlikely that he will have regained full match-fitness before the next game in the qualifying series - in Macedonia on April 2nd.

I am due to see the specialist who has been advising on my knee on Thursday of next week, and the hope is that he will clear me to start playing again without delay," he said.

"I would then need two or three matches with the reserves to get "It also helped that having been back an edge and, probably, at least two games in the Premiership to convince Mick McCarthy that I could handle the pressures of World Cup football.

"It means that the Macedonian game will probably come a fortnight too early for me, but while I would naturally be disappointed at missing the match, I'll settle gladly for the chance of playing in Romania.

"If anybody had told me on November 15th last, that I'd be ready to play an international game at the end of April, I'd have been very relieved. A lot of hard work has gone into the mix, but now that it's likely to happen, I count myself very lucky.

It all contrasts with Quinn's tale of woe after being hit by a similar injury - torn cruciate ligaments in his other knee - at the corresponding stage of the 1993/94 season.

It took another nine months before he was cleared to play again and it cost him one of the biggest prizes of all the chance of leading Ireland's attack in the 1994 World Cup finals in America.

The difference in the timetable then, as opposed to now, was that he contracted a blood infection immediately after the operation and was detained in hospital for 11 days while it cleared.

down the road once before, I knew exactly what to expect and how to handle the problems as they arose," he said. "By and large, however, my recovery this time has gone remarkably smoothly."

"This week, I've done all the work with the senior squad, played in the seven-a-sides and while I still have to discover how my knee will react to a big tackle, I'm pretty confident at this stage, that it's perfectly sound again."

The luxury of being able to alternate Quinn and Tony Cascarino is one that Mick McCarthy has missed since the opening World Cup fixture in Liechtenstein on August 31st last.

At the time, Quinn was his first-choice target man and while Cascarino has done well in his absence, scoring twice in the win over Macedonia in October, the probability is that the Sunderland player, when fit, will go back into the side.

McCarthy and Alex Ferguson had cause to react differently yesterday after Roy Keane, a player central to both their hopes, had been handed a two-match suspension for breaching the penalty-point limit of 20.

It means that the Manchester United player will miss the Premiership games against Sunderland on March 8th and Sheffield Wednesday a week later, at a stage of the competition where Manchester United's margin for error is slim if they are to retain the title.

To that extent, Ferguson will rue the loss of the man whom he describes as one of Europe's best midfielders. United, in full flood, owe much to Keane's enormous workrate and his loss could now prove expensive.

McCarthy, on the other hand, is likely to interpret Keane's rest from competition as a heaven-sent opportunity of recharging his batteries before the resumption of Ireland's World Cup programme induces different priorities.

And it will have the effect of minimising the chances of the player sustaining another of those injuries which, in an Ireland context, have proved so irritating in the past.