Roy Keane ruled out with broken ribs

When he attended the launch of the FAI's new "brand strategy" in Dublin yesterday Brian Kerr's thoughts were fixed firmly on the fitness of four of his squad - Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Clinton Morrison and Matt Holland - rather than new logos, kits and websites.

By last night, however, any concerns about the condition of the quartet were overshadowed by news from Old Trafford that Roy Keane is unlikely to play for at least three weeks due to two fractured ribs, ruling him out - barring a miraculous recovery - from Ireland's opening World Cup qualifying games at home to Cyprus on Saturday week and away to Switzerland four days later.

The Manchester United captain is believed to have sustained the injury in the first league match of the season, against Chelsea 11 days ago. "He has been in a bit of pain the last two or three games and it is too big a risk to play him now," said Alex Ferguson last night. "We took him for a scan and the injury was much more pronounced than before. If he took a bang in a game he could puncture a lung and that could put him out for months."

There was, though, some good news for Kerr last night when Robbie Keane, who injured an ankle ligament in a pre-season friendly, made his first appearance of the season for Spurs, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute in the game away to West Bromwich Albion.

The match fitness of both Duff and Robbie Keane is, however, a source of concern for Kerr, with Duff still awaiting his first competitive run-out of the new season with Chelsea after being omitted from the squad for the third successive game by Jose Mourinho for Tuesday night's win over Crystal Palace.

Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke did, though, say yesterday that "Damien is very close, he played the full 90 minutes for Ireland last week, which is good for us, he is in full training and he has a chance of being involved on Saturday".

"Of course it's a concern when your best players are not playing for their clubs," said Kerr yesterday, "but it's something I have no control over. Naturally I'd like it to be different, I'd like all my players to be playing, but the flip side of that is that when they are all playing you are worried that they might pick up an injury.

"Robbie played some of the pre-season for Spurs but he's missed a fair bit since then. But I know he's ready to play - Jacques Santini has said so and Chris Hughton has told me that he felt last week he was almost ready. I felt confident on the time scale of Robbie's injury that he had a chance of being fit for us.

"Damien is in a similar situation. He played in one or two pre-season games, but he also has 90 minutes of international football under his belt. I'm also sure that the training is of a high tempo and very competitive at both Chelsea and Spurs. In Damien's case I was glad he played the full match for us last week. While I'd like him to have a match before he comes in next week, Chelsea only have one game before then, so he's running out of time on that score. But he did show last week that he's in good nick and fine fettle. I thought he played well in the match and showed plenty of the stuff that we know he can do."

The news on Morrison, who injured his knee playing against Bulgaria last week, is more confused, with the player himself telling Kerr he expected to be available for Saturday's game against Spurs while his manager Steve Bruce was anticipating he could be out until Birmingham's September 11th fixture at Middlesbrough.

"He may be in contention for the weekend, but I doubt it," said Bruce. "He must also be considered as a major doubt for the forthcoming internationals at the start of September."

Mixed signals, too, from Charlton, where Holland is recovering from the ankle injury he picked up five minutes into the opening match of the season. A specialist confirmed he had sustained nothing more than a sprain but while the club's website suggested he may yet feature on Saturday against Manchester City manager Alan Curbishley gave the impression yesterday that he wasn't expecting the midfielder to be on Irish duty during the international "break".

Kerr, though, has yet to discount Holland. "I spoke to Matt on Tuesday and he's fully committed," he said. "He's a quick healer and he feels he's making progress. Time is short, but we'll just have to wait and see how that goes. Matt rarely misses matches for club or country and it would be a major disappointment if he wasn't fit for either of the games with Cyprus and Switzerland."

Andy Reid, meanwhile, was left out of Nottingham Forest's squad for last night's English League Cup tie against Scunthorpe, fuelling speculation that he is on the verge of a move to a Premiership club, with Spurs his most likely destination.