Keane to return for Ireland

Captain Roy Keane has landed in Dublin to kick-start the Republic of Ireland's World Cup bid.

The Manchester United midfielder was missing when Niall Quinn went in search of a million pounds for charity in his testimonial at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night.

Irish manager Mick McCarthy insisted Keane had stayed at Old Trafford for treatment on a hip injury and would be back for tonight's Lansdowne Road challenge against Nigeria.

Keane arrived last night and then made it clear: "The aim for us must be the second phase and we can do it. I've been thinking about this a lot and studying the other teams in the group to see what we need to do to qualify.

"Germany are the favourites to top Group E and I don't think anybody in Ireland would disagree with that.

"Ireland will probably be looking to finish second to them and that would be good enough to take us into the second phase. I believe we can do that."

Keane has already enlisted the help of United colleagues Quinton Fortune and Diego Forlan in his bid to assess their other Group E opponents, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia.

Fortune has played against Cameroon with South Africa while Forlan's Uruguay lost 1-0 to Saudi Arabia recently.