FEELING KEANE TO HALT REDS

MICHAEL KEANE is ready for combat with Liverpool’s big guns – after claiming suffering a fractured skull was scarier than facing Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Bobby Firmino.

The Everton and England centre-back suffered the nightmare injury in an accidental clash of heads with team-mate Idrissa Gueye in the August draw at Bournemouth.

Keane was rushed to hospital after six minutes of treatment on the pitch and now recalls the agonising days and nights waiting for the hairline fracture to heal so he could resume his career.

He said: “It was serious. I fractured my skull. When they first told me that I was worried – the first 10 days were pretty horrendous.

“I couldn’t move without the room spinning. I couldn’t see any light. For 10 days I was sat at home not doing anything. Light would make my head fuzzy.

“After that I started to recover pretty quickly and I soon got outside running.

“I did try to head it for the first time only the day before I played and sort of threw myself in the deep end at Arsenal.

“But after two weeks I didn’t feel I could head the ball. I started with really small balls, just chucking them up. Once you’ve done a few and it feels fine, you are good to go.”

Now, Keane is ready for the test against title-chasing Liverpool in today’s Merseyside derby.

He added: “It’ll be a tough game – they’ve got a world-class front three but we showed away from home we can deal with them.

“We know what to expect but we’ll have a game-plan to stop them getting the best out of their front three.”

STEVE MILLAR