Roy Keane has warned Dickson Etuhu to clean up his act after the midfielder picked up five bookings in the eight games to rule himself out of contention for Saturday's clash with Blackburn at the Stadium of Light.

The 25-year-old landed an automatic one-match ban following his caution in the 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough last week.

Previous bookings against Birmingham, Wigan, Liverpool and Luton left him walking a disciplinary tightrope, and after managing to get through fixtures against Manchester United and Reading unscathed, an untidy challenge on Luke Young confirmed his inevitable suspension.

Keane - no stranger to a rugged tackle or a yellow card during his illustrious playing days - says that his £1.5million signing must learn quickly if he is to avoid a catalogue of cautions this season.

"If you play in the middle of the park, clearly you are going to pick up bookings, you are going to be suspended, but I did not think he would be suspended so early in the season after seven games," the Corkman said today.

"That's disappointing and Dickson will have to learn from that because he is suspended.

"He has been suffering with a groin injury anyway so he might have been touch and go for the weekend, but he has got to learn fast because before you know it, he will be picking up another five.

"I'm not sure how he got the five bookings, but if they are for tackles, that's fair enough; but if they are for pulling tops... and I think one or two of his bookings have been not exactly in dangerous areas.

"Sometimes, there is a good booking, but he has probably picked up one or two bad ones."

Etuhu's absence is likely to afford Republic of Ireland midfielder Liam Miller, who scored his side's 89th-minute equaliser at the Riverside Stadium, another opportunity.

Nonetheless, the suspension has exacerbated the injury problems which have plagued Keane for much of the season to date.

Nyron Nosworthy and Russell Anderson are battling to shake off knee and calf problems respectively, but Kieran Richardson, Dean Whitehead and Stanislav Varga remain on the long-term casualty list.

Ian Harte was included in the squad for the first time last weekend, but Andy Cole is yet to shake off his own calf problem and like Carlos Edwards, who is out with a hamstring tear, will not be risked until he is fully fit.

Indeed, Keane has ruled out both men until after the next international break, which means they are unlikely to be available until the trip to West Ham on October 21st.

Keane said: "I am ruling Carlos out until probably after the international break.

"He is certainly not available for Saturday and to try to push him for the game next week against Arsenal would be crazy.

"I would probably put Andy in the same boat as Carlos. We will probably wait until after the international break to try to push him.

"He might have a week's training next week and possibly a reserve game the following week, but we won't be taking any chances with him either."