Martin O'Neill has warned his players not to put Robbie Keane's international send-off ahead of their preparations for the Republic of Ireland's opening World Cup qualifier against Serbia.
Ireland face Oman in a friendly at the Aviva Stadium tonight in a game which will both bring down the curtain on Keane's illustrious 18-year career for his country and serve as a warm-up for Monday's testing task in Belgrade.
"I'm pretty sure if he is playing, he will find himself in a lot of situations where he will put the ball in the back of the net" - Jonathan Walters
Asked if he was concerned that Keane's team-mates might pass up opportunities to shoot at goal themselves - in the hope of setting up the 36-year-old for his 68th goal for his country - O'Neill replied with a smile: "If they're in a better goalscoring position and they decide to lay one back to Robbie and he misses... Robbie is retiring and there's a fairly decent chance the other boy will be retiring too."
O'Neill is aware that an emotional night for Keane and last-minute transfer business as the summer deadline looms could affect his preparations, but he is confident that the situation can be managed.
He said: "We can balance that. We will go with it. I feel he (Keane) deserves it and I couldn't see it being a massive problem.
"Of course like everything else, you are talking about preparation, you are talking about some players having to perhaps leave to get medicals if there are opportunities to go to other clubs.
"That's just part of it now, that's just part of this particular week and hopefully after Wednesday evening, after Thursday morning, it will all clear up and we can get our minds totally set on Serbia."
Jonathan Walters will hope to line up alongside Keane one more time as he looks for the goal which would equal Gerd Muller's international career total, and he would not bet against the Los Angeles Galaxy man doing so.
Walters said: "First of all, it's an unbelievable record, what he has and what he's going for. But I'm pretty sure if he is playing, he will find himself in a lot of situations where he will put the ball in the back of the net.
"Over the course of me being here, he's one of those players who always seems to find the ball in the box, always seems to find space and get a goal, and hopefully it will happen tomorrow night."
