Man Utd v Middlesbrough Old Trafford, 8.0  Live on Premiership Plus Roy Keane's impending three-match suspension, and the possibility of the Football Association banning him for even longer, was rendered almost meaningless last night after Alex Ferguson ordered the troubled Manchester United captain to bring forward the surgery on his persistent hip injury.

He will go into hospital today for an operation that will keep him out for three months.

Ferguson summoned Keane to his office yesterday to fine him two weeks' wages (£150,000) for being sent off at Sunderland on Saturday and make it clear that, rather than delay surgery, this is the most opportune moment for him to have a spell out of the game.

That means any ban the FA imposes on Keane - when, as expected, it holds a hearing into the controversial revelations in his autobiography - will be largely inconsequential, because he would be unavailable to Ferguson anyway.

The only way the FA will be able to get around that is if it takes the unusual action of postponing the investigation or any subsequent punishment until Keane is fit again. This might lead to a legal appeal from Old Trafford but has not been ruled out.

For now United appear to be well on top in what has developed into a game of cat and mouse with the FA, however much criticism it brings. Originally Keane had been advised he could continue playing but that the injury might need an operation later in the season.

Ferguson insisted yesterday that the timing was merely coincidental but elsewhere at Old Trafford it has been made clear the United manager is taking insurance against the threat of seeing his most important player banned for up to seven games.

Ferguson also advised Keane that a period out of the spotlight might benefit him.

For almost a year Keane has had two bones in his hip that are rubbing together and causing discomfort. "It's been troubling him for some time and we've decided that now is the best time for it to be operated upon," said Ferguson.

"We hope we will have him back by the end of the year and by then that we will have qualified for the second phase of the Champions League.

"Roy has been getting by impressively. I wanted him to have the operation early last summer but he wanted to go to the World Cup with Ireland. He played at Sunderland and, without a pain-killing injection, he did magnificently. But by the end he was in some pain."

That still raises the question why, if an operation was necessary, Keane was not booked into hospital after being sent home from Mick McCarthy's squad. Ferguson's answer is that "in the middle of all that carry-on it proved too much of a distraction for him".

Keane is expected to miss 18 Premiership games, starting against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford tonight, and all six Champions League games from the opening phase. It also means he will be unavailable for the Manchester derby on November 9th. That would have been his first game at Maine Road since admitting in his autobiography that he had deliberately set out to injure Alf-Inge Haaland.

Middlebrough boss Steve McClaren will arrive at Old Trafford tonight wary of plenty of threats, but no doubt pepped up by Keane's absence. "He mirrors the manager on the pitch. They are winners. Everyone in football anywhere in the world would want Roy in their team. Nothing fazes him," said McClaren yesterday.

Unfortunately, plenty about English football has bemused the man who must now come to the fore in the captain's absence. Juan Sebastian Veron has lived in Keane's shadow since his arrival from Lazio, enduring the Irishman's regular ear-bashings on the pitch and utterly failing to shrug off his unwelcome and weighty tag of a £28.1m white elephant.

The Argentinian's display at Sunderland was encouraging and he will play alongside Nicky Butt in the centre tonight. But his club - not to mention his ego - will be demanding a world-class performance worthy of his price tag. The hope will be that Veron will rise to the occasion while United set about helping Keane to exorcise his own personal demons out of the firing line.

Irish under-21 international Paul Tierney could be in line for his debut if Mikael Silvestre fails to overcome the neck injury which forced him out of Saturday's draw. Centre-half and fellow under-21 international John O'Shea took over from Silvestre at the Stadium of Light but 19-year-old Tierney is a more natural replacement at left-back.

McClaren will be without Brazilian Juninho, who has started his rehabilitation from surgery on a cruciate ligament injury after returning to Teesside, and hamstring victim Szilard Nemeth.

But defenders Ugo Ehiogu and Franck Queudrue, who have been receiving treatment for foot and ankle problems respectively, and striker Alen Boksic (a thigh strain), are all expected to recover.