Man Utd board meets to tackle question of Roy Keane's future

The furore over Roy Keane's admission that he deliberately tried to injure a fellow professional footballer is being taken so seriously that the future of the Manchester United captain is to be discussed by the board of the club's quoted parent company.

Sir Roy Gardner, the Manchester United chairman, confirmed that the Keane episode was on the agenda for the next meeting of the plc board later this month.

"We will debate the issue but beyond that I will not be quoted on Mr Keane other than to say he is a very talented footballer," said Sir Roy, who had trials with Queen's Park Rangers as a schoolboy.

Sir Roy, who is also chief executive of Centrica, said it was not unusual for the board to discuss individual players. However, the Keane affair threatens to have more repercussions for the quoted parent company than usual.

In his autobiography, Keane admits to having set out to injure the Manchester City player Alf Inge Haarland during a local derby in April last year. The player and his club are now threatening to sue Keane and Manchester United for a reported £5m – equivalent to a quarter of last year's pre-tax profits.

The incident has also also thrown the spotlight on players writing their autobiographies while they are still playing. The Manchester United board is now expected to insist on amendments to players' contracts to outlaw this practice while they are still playing for the club.

The Football Association has charged Keane on two counts of bringing the game into disrepute which could lead to further heavy fines and suspension for the former Ireland captain.

Manchester United, which has a stock market value of £268m, reports its results for the year to 31 July at the end of this month. In the previous year it made pre-tax profits of £20m on turnover of £129m.