Keane blamed for comeback fiasco

Irish football chiefs have insisted that Roy Keane has only himself to blame for missing the World Cup.

FAI general secretary Brendan Menton revealed that a deal for Keane to return to the squad had been agreed on Tuesday, but was ruined by his refusal to apologise for his verbal assault on manager Mick McCarthy.

"The only person who scuppered Roy's comeback was Roy," said Menton. "We had done everything, including arranging his flight to Tokyo and agreeing a statement with Mick to announce Roy's return.

"Everything had been agreed with his people. The statement was acceptable to Mick, Roy's advisers had given us the green light and we agreed a time to announce his comeback. All we needed was his phone call to Mick to apologise." Ireland's hopes of replacing Keane with Celtic's Colin Healy were all but dashed by FIFA today as it told officials they have 24 hours to come up with proof that Keane is unfit.

If they fail to do that in time for their opener against Cameroon - the cut-off point is tomorrow morning - McCarthy will have to choose from a squad of just 22 players, and not the permitted 23.

FIFA's director of communications Keith Cooper said: " The situation remains as it was. Roy Keane has not been declared unfit. Therefore he cannot be released.

"I am not aware of an official request received from Ireland. It is hard to take any final decision in the absence of such a request and in the absence of a medical certificate to prove that Roy Keane is not fit to play.

"The cut-off point for that is 24 hours before Ireland's first match, so the clock is ticking."

Irish stars left with heavy burden