He was once the 'new Ruud van Nistelrooy' - but now Will Keane has found his peace at Wigan

Will Keane is sipping coffee in a cafe in south Manchester and chuckling about the game against Oldham the previous night. “It was funny,” the Wigan Athletic striker says. “I was getting ‘You’re just a s--- Andy Carroll’ from their fans.

“I remember a couple of years ago being on holiday in Dubai and Andy Carroll was actually in the same hotel working with the same physio. This lady came up to me one breakfast saying, ‘Andy, Andy, can we have a picture with the kids’.

“I was like, ‘Sorry, I’m not the real Andy Carroll - he’s over there. He’s a lot bigger than me!’”

Keane does not just share a passing resemblance to the former Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham forward. He has had similarly bad luck with injuries that derailed his career at Manchester United and blighted his time at Hull City.

But, after what felt like years trying to catch a break, he is revelling in “a new lease of life” at a resurgent Wigan, and with his adoptive Ireland, and wondering if the League One club can write another FA Cup fairy tale nine years after producing one of the competition’s great upsets when they beat Manchester City in the final. Premier League promotion chasers Blackburn stand between them and a place in the fourth round at the DW Stadium on Saturday.

“We’re champing at the bit and I’m sure the fans will be right up for it,” he said. “The manager [Leam Richardson] has made it clear that Wigan’s history in the competition can play a massive part.”

It was actually against Blackburn that Keane made his United debut, a 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve 2011 perhaps best remembered for Wayne Rooney being dropped following a boozy Boxing Day night out. “I can’t remember too much about that but it worked out well for me and probably got me in the squad!” Keane says, laughing. “So cheers Wazza!”

Keane was one of the most exciting young prospects in United’s academy at that point, a ruthless striker whose finishing had drawn comparisons with Ruud van Nistelrooy and who had been a key part of the FA Youth Cup-winning side earlier that year with Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and his twin brother Michael, now with Everton.

But, only five months later, he suffered the first of two cruciate injuries to his left knee and did not play again for 19 months, a misfortune that would repeat itself over the years to come and lead to so many missed opportunities that it is easy to understand why he is savouring his second coming as a player.

After a series of loan moves, Keane found himself back at Old Trafford in January 2016 and confident of taking his chance under Louis van Gaal. He came on as a substitute against Sunderland the next month and was then summoned from the bench again in an FA Cup tie at Shrewsbury only for calamity to strike attempting a shot. “As soon as I hit it my groin popped - it felt like my leg had detached from my body,” Keane recalled. “I tried to run it off and couldn’t move.”

One man’s pain is invariably another man’s gain and, three days later in a Europa League tie at Old Trafford, another young striker who had been behind Keane in the pecking order would take full advantage of a raft of injuries to put his name up in lights with two debut goals in a 5-1 win. A sliding doors moment for Keane would prove quite the springboard for Marcus Rashford.

“I went for an operation in America and I remember landing in Philadelphia on the Sunday a few days after the Midtjylland game and the physio who was with me turning on his phone and saying Marcus had scored another two against Arsenal,” Keane recalls. “I was delighted for him but I was thinking, ‘Flippin’ heck, that could have been me’.”

In truth, Keane’s most challenging moment was still to come. He had moved to Hull for £1 million that summer but, just 10 weeks later, ruptured his cruciate again. “Mentally, that was the worst of all of the injuries to deal with,” he said. By the time he returned over a year later, the manager had changed four times and he was a forgotten man.

Not any more, though. After initially accepting a short-term contract to join Wigan last season, Keane’s goals helped to keep the club in League One as they battled through administration and now he is one of the figure heads in a slick, new look side pushing for promotion.

Under Richardson, he has been converted from centre-forward to a No 10 and his form has earned him a place in the Ireland team, for whom he qualifies through his father Aidan. “Wigan has just been the perfect fit,” he said. “It’s almost been the start of a fresh career.”

Twenty nine next week and with his wife Megan, the daughter of former Manchester City striker Adrian Heath, expecting their second child shortly, Keane, bright and very likeable, is in a happy place and making up for lost time. “I’ve missed years but hopefully I may gain them later in my career now,” he said. “I’ve have never just relied on speed so hopefully if I can keep looking after myself it’ll serve me well.”

Watching his Wigan team-mate and strike partner Charlie Wyke suffer a cardiac arrest during training in November was also a reminder to make the most of the moment. “It still probably lives with a lot of the lads. It was horrendous,” he says. “The way gaffer responded was incredible. Charlie’s just started to come in a little bit again now and it’s great to see him back. I’m just wishing him a full, speedy recovery.”