ROY KEANE promised he would be saying his prayers for Kenwyne Jones when the Sunderland striker underwent an exploratory knee operation on Monday and yesterday they were answered.
Keane feared the surgery would confirm Jones had ruptured a cruciate ligament and would be out for most of the season. Instead the diagnosis was unexpectedly positive with a prognosis that the centre-forward will be back in the first team in six to eight weeks.
"We were in the dark but it's really good news," enthused Keane. "Kenwyne has avoided major surgery."
Jones has had his knee in a brace ever since colliding with England's David James while leading the Trinidad and Tobago attack in an end-of-season friendly in the West Indies. The thinking behind leaving injuries to "self heal" in this way is to avoid significant surgery and in Jones's case, it seems to have paid off. "We did not know Kenwyne hadn't done his cruciate until the surgeon got into the knee, but although it's ligament damage it's not the cruciate," added the Sunderland manager.
The depth of Keane's anxiety about losing one of his key players for a potentially long stretch was highlighted last week when he braced Jones for bad news. "I had a chat to Kenwyne just last week about how things would be if he had done his cruciate," he said, before joking: "So that was a waste of time."
Sunderland remain in the market for a new striker to partner Jones as well as a central defender and a left-back. Keane was coy when the subject of Louis Saha was raised but contact has been made with Manchester United about buying the striker.
The Newcastle manager, Kevin Keegan, says he hopes to end his club's lack of activity in the transfer market by bringing in three new players. Danny Guthrie and the Argentinian Jonas Gutierrez have been the only additions to Keegan's squad this summer in what has been a frustrating time for the Magpies' manager.
Keegan is confident he will have made more signings by the time his side face Manchester United in their first Premier League match a week on Sunday. "I would still like to strengthen and I'm confident we'll bring in at least two, possibly three more faces," he said.
"If those players are of the quality of Gutierrez and Guthrie then we'll take our chances. Add to that all the players we've got to come back, then we've got a strong, quality squad with competition for places."
Guardian Sport
