From his interview with The Times:
"To get through games I would get an injection of Voltarol (an anti-inflammatory) to ease the pain. It got to the point where I was getting them at half-time as well. Taken as often as I was, Voltarol was damaging my stomach. There was a lot more damage than he expected. The surgeons exact words were, ‘I will be glad if you can get back playing, full stop’. We discussed the possibility of my having to retire. He talked about the likelihood of a hip replacement at a very young age.
"The doctor’s advice was always, ‘It’s not good to be doing this every week’, but I wanted to play. It was my decision to have the injections. With hindsight you can say it was crazy. It was crazy, but that’s hindsight. Hip surgery was something of a last resort. But the painkillers are part of a vicious cycle. Taken as often as I was taking it, Voltarol was damaging my stomach, and for the two days after the injection, the pain would be really bad and I wouldn’t be able to train. If you’re not training, your performance is affected, and that’s the cycle.
"What I liked about talking to the surgeon was he was not employed by United, and I believe he would have given me the same advice if I was Roy Keane, a guy who had walked in off the street. He talked about the likelihood of a hip replacement at a very young age and asked me about life after football.
"‘Is it important to you, Roy, to play tennis with your kids? Do you want to be able to go for a run in the park?’ "‘Doc’, I said, ‘my football career is very, very important to me’."
"I knew I had to come back a different player. I couldn’t have continued the way I was going. There was madness about what I was doing. I mean the sending-off against Sunderland, pure stupidity. I rose to the bait of a fellow player. I let a lot of things interfere with what I should have been concentrating on. I know when I say this I am in danger of shooting myself in the foot, but so far there has been some evidence of a better approach. I am trying not to let the daft things become so powerful in me again, if you know where I am coming from.
"I have also got to change my style on the pitch. Before I ran around and basically tried to do everything. Now I am trying — and trying is a good word — to use my head a little more. Watching the lads playing while I was still out injured, it dawned on me: ‘Jesus, Roy, let the others do a bit of running, they’re fit lads’. I’m not exactly going to sit in the centre circle, but I am going to be a bit cleverer."
"I live over here now and people may wonder why I don’t probably intend to go back (to Ireland). Well, it is the way things are over there. They are quite happy to knock people. Being honest, I feel really let down by what has happened in Ireland. I was angry for two days. I’ve cooled off a bit, but there’s a lot of negative things over there. People need to remember the bloody good things (that happened) when I played for Ireland. The last few days have been a pretty sad state of affairs."
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