Roy Keane & Paul Gascoigne – Cruciate Injury Comparisons

In his Roy Keane’s autobiography he discusses the serious cruciate ligament injuries sustained in the infamous Alf-Inge Haaland incident and a similar injury sustained by Paul Gascoigne in the 1991 FA Cup Final. The contrast in the descriptions is very interesting in that they reveal something about the way he views his actions and the actions of others. It betrays a basic dishonesty, perhaps borne out of self-delusion, by Roy Keane.

Paul Gascoigne’s Cruciate Injury [Page 48]

Keane described in his autobiography how Paul Gascoigne suffered his serious cruciate ligament injury. The setting was the 1991 FA Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, Keane’s club at the time. Keane described Gascoigne as manic and crazy. “He had a glazed look in his eyes.” Very early in the game Gascoigne felled Forest’s Gary Charles with a “kung-fu” kick. “In the process he’d injured himself. As it turned out, the self-inflicted damage to to his cruciate would also damage Gazza’s career…”

Now compare this to Keane’s description to how he sustained his own injury.

Roy Keane’s Cruciate Injury [Page 172]

The backdrop to this incident was that Keane had been involved an drunken altercation in a Manchester hotel at 4:30am on a Thursday. Just 36 hours later he took to the field for Manchester United in a Premiership match against Leeds United at Elland Road.

Keane admits that he wasn’t in any physical or psychological shape to play the game. According to Keane Alf-Inge Haaland had been winding him up throughout the match. There were five minutes to go as United advanced into Leeds penalty box.

“…I lunged in desperation at Haaland. I was trying to trip him up rather than kick him. I knew it would probably mean a booking, but f**k it, He’d done his job. He’s done my head in…I actually heard my cruciate ligament snap.”

At no time throughout his book does Roy Keane admit that his injury was self-inflicted or that he had in any way been responsible for his injury. In fact he makes it clear that he blamed Haaland.

In the passage where he describes his gym work during his rehabilitation he stated menacingly “Few days passed when I didn’t think about Alfie Haaland.”[Page 175].

Even Keane’s description of the incident that led to his injury is not honest.

The video of the footage of the incident clearly shows that Keane kicked out at Haaland with his right foot and then tried to kick the Norwegian with his left foot.

In the process Keane’s snapped his cruciate ligament.

NOTE: Unless stated otherwise all quotations are from:
Keane: The Autobiography; Roy Keane with Eamon Dunphy (2002); Michael Joseph Ltd

Roy Keane & Charity

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