Keane stays loyal to Ireland

Robbie Keane has rejected a request by LA Galaxy to miss the Republic of Ireland’s crunch play-off tie with Estonia.

Galaxy asked Keane to go back to the US early in preparation for the MLS Cup final on Sunday.

But even though Ireland go into Tuesday’s second-leg home tie against Estonia 4-0 up, Keane believes the job is still not done and does not want to miss out.

“They requested that I go back to LA but the manager and myself said no because the job’s still not done,” Keane told reporters.

“This could be one of the greatest moments in Irish history and it wouldn’t feel right to miss it. They’re happy with what the manager and the association said and it’s not a problem.”

And Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has echoed Keane’s thoughts that his team can’t go into the game thinking they have qualified.

“We must remember that the qualifier is not finished,” Trapattoni said.

“We haven’t achieved yet. If we go on the pitch with the wrong mentality, it would be more difficult to achieve the result we are looking for.”

“We have to show respect for our people who have bought tickets and are coming to the stadium, to our opponents and to our own professionalism.”

“We have to show commitment for the Irish people because they are waiting for a victory.”

“It won’t be good enough to go on to the pitch with the mentality that all we have to do is avoid the defeat and we would not allow ourselves to do that.”