Whatever the ultimate truth of the latest misadventure to blot Roy Keane's reputation the fact that details of the incident and quotes from the alleged victim found there way into The Sun newspaper with such devastating swiftness speaks volumes about the environment in which Keane has to function. Given the stated times at which the incident is said to have occurred, getting a detailed account and direct quotes from the alleged victim into tabloid newsprint so swiftly was quite a journalistic feat.

As details emerged yesterday concerning the business in Henry's Bar in the centre of Manchester, the story began to seem less clear cut than originally reported. The brewery which owns the pub said the women involved had to be ejected for causing offence to staff and customers. Keane had a cut on his face when arrested. After questioning, he was released without charge and must present himself at Bootle police station on July 13th. The picture will remain fuzzy for some time.

There is no good time for a footballer to be arrested in a pub for an incident involving an alleged assault on a woman, but the latest episode in Keane's catalogue of controversy comes within 48 hours of his finest moment as a player and at the beginning of a week which culminates with an FA Cup final appearance. The human resources department at Old Trafford is faced with a ticklish problem.

On Sunday, as captain of perhaps the biggest soccer club in the world, he lifted the Premiership trophy. And it was Keane, more than any other player, who could take the credit for United's victory. That was Sunday. Keane spent Monday night in a police cell, waking on Tuesday morning to a police interrogation and the ruddied face of Alex Ferguson.

Coming on the morning after a televisual re-examination of the reputation of United's patron saint, Sir Matt Busby, the watercooler chat at Old Trafford must have been extraordinary yesterday.

The past 48 hours brought a jarring turn of events for the player, but Keane's career from Mayfield to Old Trafford has had a surreal quality to it. The tale is well-thumbed. The diminutive star of a celebrated Rockmount team, Keane got left behind while friends and rivals went on trials to English clubs. Keane moved on to Cobh Ramblers and wrote letters hustling for a chance. He ended up as captain of Ireland and captain of perhaps the most glamorous club in the world. His rise from to £30,000-a-week Premiership celebrity hasn't been without difficulties. Few individuals are equipped for the sort of pressures which Keane's talents have subjected him to.

In Nottingham, where he was the star in a Forest side bereft of such commodities, his life was unbearably claustrophobic. He described how he could scarcely go out for a drink in the city without being cornered and badgered by football fans.

Keane is an odd character, mixing an almost crippling shyness with a single-minded passion for the game. He has become probably the Premiership's most complete midfield player and most influential team captain while being personally poorly equipped for the public aspects of his duties.

The memories of him for those who have covered his career at club and international level depict a young man ill at ease with the celebrity which accompanies his job. He was once frog-marched red-faced and mortified into a press tent in Florida by Jack Charlton to tell the assembled media that he hadn't had a row with Maurice Setters in training before the 1994 World Cup finals. Everything about Keane's face and body language screamed that he didn't want to be there. In that respect, little has changed since. Interviewers find him difficult to locate and pin down for in-depth pieces, yet those who have had contact with him have noted a decency and generosity which the cascade of tabloid headlines relating to Keane has never allowed for. Likewise in Cork, those who know him speak of his loyalty and generosity to old friends, his constant contact with his old clubmates and his quiet support for mates in trouble.

The current scrape is not the first to have embroiled him. In Nottingham several nights out ended badly and he was sued at home in Ireland following an incident in which he was alleged to have verbally abused a young woman in Cork. He was cleared of the charge and of his own volition subsequently paid the woman's legal fees.

As his game developed and his reputation grew it became inevitable that Nottingham Forest would be unable to hold onto him and his lingering departure as Forest struggled at the foot of the top division was marked by a growing acrimony towards him from fans.

He eventually joined Manchester United after a long flirtation with Blackburn who were offering more money but less stability. In the matter of negotiations and transfers Keane has always looked after himself well securing early in his career the services of London solicitor Michael Kennedy to represent him. Kennedy who entered the football world in the 1970s acting on behalf of David O'Leary is a low-key operator with a solid legal business and only a handful of footballers as clients. In a world full of shiny-suited agents with mobile phones and short-term cash needs, Kennedy is a quality operator who conducts business on behalf of his client in a quiet non-confrontational way. This season when Keane failed to secure the wage increase he was asking from his employers it was agreed that the issue would be shelved to the end of the season. Both club and player benefited from the decision.

In his first season at Old Trafford, Keane helped the club to their first League and FA Cup double and his term there has been marked by almost unceasing success ever since. The departure of Paul Ince, seen at the time as a disaster for Manchester United, illustrated Keane's growing range of talents and the critical limitations of Ince's game. Keane matured as an international player during the 1994 World Cup in the United States where he was Ireland's best player over the four games there. Back in Manchester, however, the subsequent domestic season saw his reputation as a potential flashpoint in games grow rapidly.

He was sent off following a stamping incident on Gareth Southgate, then of Crystal Palace, during an FA Cup semi-final replay. Subsequently, he suffered a disrepute charge from the Football Association and a fine of £5,000.

More dismissals followed as he gained a reputation as English soccer's most volatile commodity. The 1995-96 season brought two more red cards before Christmas and his first sending-off in an Irish jersey in a friendly against Russia.

Lines between Keane and Mick McCarthy got crossed frequently in McCarthy's early days in charge of the national team. Those close to Keane suggested that the international experience under Jack Charlton had never been too pleasant for the player, coming into a team which was populated by senior personalities already divided into cast-iron cliques. Manchester United's perceived reluctance to part periodically with an asset they had paid £3.75 million for in 1993 can't have bolstered his enthusiasm either.

His failure to show up for a training camp in Monaghan prior to McCarthy's testimonial and an early summer tour to the United States led to a tragicomic series of events, with McCarthy being the victim of a practical joke when somebody phoned him pretending to be Keane. A national newspaper called on fans in Lansdowne Road to boo Keane when he turned out in the subsequent international there.

The friction cost Keane captaincy of Ireland for a period, but McCarthy made efforts to bridge the gap, meeting with the player and Alex Ferguson before the Cup final of that year and effecting a thaw in relations. He was rewarded by a series of fine performances by Keane in the latter stages of Ireland's bid to qualify for the 1998 World Cup.

The national team felt the full weight of Keane's new-found influence when they were forced to cope without him in the final playoff games against Belgium.

In September 1997, while playing for Manchester United against Leeds at Elland Road, a typically impetuous challenge on Alf Inge Haaland left Keane with a severed cruciate ligament. The injury cost Keane the remainder of the season and possibly cost Ireland a place in the World Cup.

His return has been a remarkable success, underlining his position as the most important player at Old Trafford. In his absence United watched Arsenal win the domestic double. This year, with Keane not only restored but apparently more self-disciplined, United are on the verge of an unprecedented sweep of trophies.

His year out of football appears to have had a cathartic effect on him and this year his presence on the field has been just as inspirational but more mature than before.

"When you are looking at the game from the outside, you appreciate more what you have. I think I have matured as a person and a player," he was quoted as saying recently.

Keane was no longer the young fellow, new to money and fame, who drove around Manchester in a red sports car with the registration Roy 1. Settled with his partner Theresa and three children, the past season had been notable for the lack of red cards and the absence of newspaper headlines relating to off-the-field incidents.

Yesterday, though, he was back behind the doors of his £900,000 mock-Tudor mansion in Hale having been dropped off in a police van. Clearing his head before Manchester United head to Wembley for Saturday's FA Cup final. Clearing his reputation will be work for another day.