Richard Keogh will miss the next 15 months with a knee injury he sustained in a car crash last week.
The Republic of Ireland defender, and Derby County captain, sustained a fractured wrist and a serious knee injury in the crash. Keogh, who does not drive, was a passenger. He has damaged his anterior cruciate ligament and his medial collateral ligament
BREAKING: Derby Captain, Richard Keogh out for up to 15months after snapping ACL & MCL. He was injured in a car accident, in which two of his teammates were charged with drunk driving
— Rebecca Williams ? (@RebeccaTVnews) September 30, 2019
The crash occurred following a club sanctioned night out. A report in the Telegraph stated that Keogh was sitting in the backseat of Tom Lawrence’s Range Rover when it crashed into a lamppost. Lawrence and his teammate Mason Bennett were charged with drink-driving.
For Keogh, he will be on the sidelines until December 2020. The 33-year-old will miss the rest of this season and at least half of next season. His contract with Derby expires at the end of the 2020/21 campaign.
The central defender, who has been a regular for Ireland under Mick McCarthy, also has no chance of playing for the team at Euro 2020, should Ireland reach the tournament next summer.
Derby were heavily critical of Keogh in a statement released after the incident.
“As a club, we cannot, and do not, condone the actions of a small group of players on Tuesday evening.
“The players were out as part of a scheduled team-building dinner with staff and while the majority of them acted responsibly and left at around 8pm and were not involved, a small group, including the team captain Richard Keogh, continued drinking into the night. They should have known when to stop and also ignored the opportunity to be driven home using cars laid on by the club, and chose to stay out.”