The Football Association have confirmed Roy Keane has until Friday to appeal against his five-match ban and £150,000 sterling fine.
The Manchester United skipper is technically suspended from today following the double guilty verdict handed down against him on the two disrepute charges he faced at the Reebok Stadium last month.
It had been thought that the deadline for appeal had passed without reply on Friday last, with the FA stating on their website that the ban would take effect from November 4th, covering next Saturday's Manchester derby and the crunch clash with Liverpool at Anfield on December 1st.
However, Keane's legal representatives immediately claimed they had a letter dated October 25th, which confirmed they had another 14 days after that to lodge any protest against the punishment.
It has still not been decided whether Keane will appeal against the ban, which arose after the FA took exception to comments in his autobiography concerning his tackle on Manchester City's Alfie Haaland at Old Trafford in April last year.Keane is recovering from a hip operation, although his recovery has not been as quick as manager Sir Alex Ferguson had hoped for, and plans for a Champions League re-appearance against Bayer Leverkusen on November 13th have now been shelved.
The United boss said: "He [Keane] is still a few weeks away. There is a long remedial period with this type of injury and he had done a lot of hard work, so we decided to give him a break last week.
"He needed a break because sometimes he can push himself a bit hard but he is back doing some good work again".