Wigan Athletic ace has 'a lot more to give'

The 28-year-old played a major role in Latics securing their League One safety against all the odds - on and off the field - during an incredible campaign.

Like the vast majority of the squad, he's now out of contract and waiting to discover how much the club wants to keep hold of him.

On the back of the best season of his injury-ravaged career - 11 goals and five assists in 34 appearances - he's in a strong bargaining position.

And he points to Leicester and England hotshot Jamie Vardy as proof there could be so much more to come in the later years of his career.

“It was good to finish the season strongly and get a few goals," he said.

"I know I’m capable of that. I just want to build on that next year and go again, knowing I’ve got a lot more to give.

"I’m still only 28. I’ve had a couple of good years fitness-wise. Touch wood, I can keep that up and keep progressing.

“I’m at the age now where I just want to be playing regularly and enjoying my football, especially with all the setbacks I’ve had in the past.

"I don’t want to put too much pressure on it, but I’m still confident I’ve got the capabilities.

"You see examples, like Jamie Vardy, who don’t get into the Premier League until late, so you never know.”

Keane was tipped for a glittering career after coming through the ranks at Manchester United along with, among others, his brother Michael - the Everton and England defender - Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard.

Sadly, an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained while on international duty with the England Under-19s, which robbed him of more than a year of his development, knocked him back.

Loans at Queens Park Rangers, Latics - under Uwe Rosler - Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End led to one final attempt to make the grade at Old Trafford under Louis van Gaal, before injury struck again.

Which ended up opening the door for a certain Marcus Rashford to burst onto the scene.

“I was involved in a couple of games, I came on in the FA Cup and I injured my groin," he told Planet Football. "I was out for another three or four months.

"It felt like my last chance to break into the first-team squad had come and gone.”

“Marcus Rashford played that week in the Europa League. He got a couple of goals, and then a couple more against Arsenal.

“Obviously nothing against him, and he was always going to break through, but at the time you’re thinking, ‘Oh, if I wasn’t injured, that could have been me’.

"At that point, I knew I had to start thinking about my career beyond United.”

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