Roy Keane may walk away from football after leaving Sunderland yesterday, it has been revealed.

The Daily Mail says Keane has been so tortured by the experience of the last few months there is now a real concern that his often tempestuous love affair with football is over; that there is no way back from this nadir; that the experience has been too much, even for a man who eventually returned to play for Ireland having quit international football when he stormed away from Saipan.

There is a key difference, however, between what happened shortly before the 2002 World Cup and what has occurred at the Stadium of Light. In Saipan he doubted the ability of others. This time he doubts himself.