AN uneasy calm Was declared in the Roy Keane affair yesterday as Mick McCarthy assessed the evidence of Wednesday's Unlucky defeat by Portugal at the start of the Republic of Ireland's six game programme.

Keane had nothing to add to his disputed statement that he contacted the FAI to notify them of his withdrawal from the squad.

And McCarthy, striving to distance himself from the controversy which has clouded the opening months of his reign was careful not to inflame the situation before taking the squad to Cavan to prepare his players for Sunday's meeting with Croatia at Lansdowne Road.

"For the moment, I just want it finished," he said. I'm just sorry that it was conducted in public and that a problem which could have been smoothed out quite easily, was allowed to develop to the point where it became big news.

I said that I would defend him publicly and I have. But the least I deserved was a phone call and, of course, it never happened.

The matter cannot be allowed to fester, but I feel it has now gone past the point where it can be sorted out on the telephone. I would like to meet him face to face to talk it through but when that will be, I just don't know.

Publicly, Keane appears to enjoy little support for his handling of a situation which has done nothing to smooth the transition of power from the Jack Charlton era.

Privately, there is a lot of resentment among his fellow professionals, less for his failure to show up than his insensitivity in ignoring the manager and, by extension his team mates.

The same latent feeling of suspicion surface at times during the European championship campaign in which Keane's high rate of absenteeism was a contributory factor to the team's eclipse.

At times, when others were putting qualification high on the list of their season's priorities, Keane was seen to be too passive in relation to Manchester United's handling of his injury problems over the last 18 months.

As fellow professionals, they acknowledge the difficulties in persuading club managers to put their primary objectives at risk in the cause of facilitating international ambitions.

Yet, the perception was that Keane did not exercise the clout which is the prerogative of a player of his stature in the timing of his two hernia operations.

The player is, of course, right when he says that he was merely replicating the decision of many others in opting out of the punishing end of season programme.

The difference is that he argues from a position of relative weakness after missing eight of the 11 games in the European qualifying campaign.

How McCarthy reacts to the biggest crisis of his managerial career is another matter. By stating that Keane had been excluded from the American tour he was almost certainly doing him a favour.

The bigger question, by far, concerns his plans for the player for his World Cup programme which begins in Liechtenstein on August 31st. Then, the tag of friendly fixtures no longer applies and he is required to deliver a win.

Ireland's resources do not remotely compare with those of England. Yet, McCarthy may well ponder the action of his England counterpart Terry Venables after Paul Ince had decided to make himself unavailable for the Umbro Cup games against Brazil, Sweden and Japan last summer.

Ince, for all his talent, did not re-emerge in Venables' plans for some considerable time and the unspoken message was that the team was bigger than any one player.

The comparison is not inappropriate now as McCarthy ponders the difficult equation of courting Keane's goodwill at the expense of having his authority flouted in such flagrant fashion.

The expedient solution is to close the book and start afresh in August. But for some of us, that may only be done at the risk of undermining the biggest single legacy of the Charlton era commitment.

Meanwhile, McCarthy has ruled out the possibility of Andy Townsend solving the problem of Keane's absence, in the short term, by making himself available for the American tour which starts with a game against the host country at Boston a week on Sunday.

"We've talked the matter over and we're both agreed that he needs a rest," he said. I feel Andy is going to have a big World Cup next season and and be can benefit from the extra fortnight's break".

Townsend, whose wife is expecting a baby, returned to England yesterday, but is expected back in time for the meeting with Croatia.

The Irish voluntary group, Irish Bosnia Aid, has already sent 187 trucks of food and medical aid overland to Croatia and Bosnia. The truck being loaded tomorrow (Santry Garda station 12.00 noon) is destined for an orphanage in Osijek in Croatia,