Wigan striker shows where there’s a Will, there’s a way
ITH nine goals from his last 14 league games, Wigan’s Will Keane is rapidly making up for lost time. The forward harboured dreams of making the kind of impact Marcus Rashford went on to enjoy at Manchester United only for injuries to force him to miss the best part of three seasons.
Now he hopes his resurgence can lead to League One leaders Wigan returning to the Championship.
Having already overcome a wrecked ACL while on England Under-19s duty, which wiped out the 2012-13 season, a groin injury suffered after coming on as a late substitute for Louis Van Gaal’s United at Shrewsbury in 2016 proved a tipping point in his career.
Keane, then 23, had played a reserve game 48 hours earlier and recalls: ‘Maybe there was a bit of fatigue and it was a cold Monday night.
‘Louis only likes his players to warm up if they are going on so it was quick.’
After feeling his groin go, Keane recognised something was badly wrong.
‘I knew it was the last chance to break into the squad,’ he adds. ‘It’s very frustrating. It seems like every time I get an opportunity I have a setback. It was time to move on.’
As if leaving Old Trafford wasn’t painful enough for the Stockport-born United fan – who had been at the club since he was a boy – Rashford scored twice on his United debut in a Europa League tie with Midtjylland three days later and has never looked back.
‘Your loss is always someone else’s gain but Marcus was always going to break through,’ says Keane. ‘But I’d like to think if I didn’t have so many injuries at that crucial age I might have been able to get in the team.’
Instead he joined Hull under Mike Phelan – who he had known as United assistant manager – and admits: ‘I was really excited to show people what I was capable of.’
But after six games he did his left ACL once more in November 2016 and did not play again until January 2018.
‘You have to put it in perspective,’
says the affable 28-year-old. ‘ How many of the general public would like to be a professional footballer?
‘Injuries are just part of it. It’s a test of character to come back stronger and better. It is such a slow rehab with ACLs, you have to be really patient and set yourself goals and keep positive.’
After a season with Ipswich, Keane was without a club last year until he started training with Wigan, where he had a brief loan spell in 2013,
‘I knew it was a great club and I was desperate to play,’ he adds. ‘This was a great opportunity to show what I can do and help them stay in the league.’
However, fans had to raise funds to keep the club afloat at one point but salvation came in the form of a consortium led by the Bahraini businessman Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi.
‘A lot of people wrote off us last year but that spurred us on,’ he says.
‘We have a really strong squad. We went on a great run at the end of last season and carried that on. It feels like we are building.
‘We had a tough start this season on paper and came through that well. But it’s early days and there is a lot more to come from us.’
Wigan have been a yo-yo club, with six promotions or relegations in the last eight terms but Keane sees a bright future under boss Leam Richardson.
‘Especially with the new ownership – they seem really ambitious and have backed the manager with players who are hungry,’ Keane explains.
‘I feel great, it fills you with confidence when the manager gave me a really good run last year.
‘I have probably missed two-and-ahalf or three years, so hopefully I can add those years on at the end of my career. I just need to keep looking after myself and give myself the best chance to play as long as possible.’