Keown fined £5,000 by FA for Van Nistelrooy push

The Arsenal defender Martin Keown has been fined £5,000 by the Football Association and warned as to his future conduct following his altercation with Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Keown was seen to push the Dutch international striker during the Gunners' 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford in December and, although the incident was missed by match referee Dermot Gallagher, the FA requested a video tape of the match.

Robbie Fowler has been given an intensive training programme by Manchester City to help him regain full fitness.

The new signing has looked rusty since his £6m move from Leeds and he has been in for extra training all week. The City manager Kevin Keegan let the rest of the squad have four days off after drawing 1-1 with Manchester United on Sunday, but Fowler has faced a special course of work with the club's fitness coach, Juan Osorio, as the 27-year-old seeks to recover his sharpness.

At least Fowler was spared a run-out with City's reserves in a Manchester Senior Cup tie last night and Keegan plans to play him in first-team games to help him find his old form.

Darren Huckerby will complete his three-month loan move to the First Division club Nottingham Forest by the end of the month. The Manchester City striker has been on the margins at Maine Road following the arrival of Fowler.

Manchester City's veteran goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel faces an uncertain future after the latest recurrence of his nagging calf injury.

The 39-year-old had to pull out of last weekend's Manchester derby against his former club after his calf gave way in the warm-up minutes before kick-off at Old Trafford.

Schmeichel, who first suffered the injury five weeks ago, said he was "back to square one" and said: "If you asked me whether I will be here next year when I was fit I would say yes.

"But at the moment I cannot look beyond clearing this injury problem," he admitted.

"It is very frustrating, they are not happy times. You spend all day going through the same drill, getting the same treatment seven days a week, and having done it for five weeks now it is very demoralising.

"All I want to do is get back playing, what is going to happen after that I don't know."

Schmeichel signed for City in a surprise move after being released by Aston Villa last April. But the start of his Maine Road career was disrupted in August when he was kept out for three weeks by a knee ligament injury.

The Dane, who won 129 caps for his country and helped them win the 1992 European Championship, will have to make a decision about whether to carry on playing when his 12-month City contract expires at the end of the season.

The Blackburn Rovers striker Matt Jansen is in talks with Coventry City about joining the First Division club for the rest of the season.

The Sky Blues emerged as favourites for his signature after Rovers confirmed that Jansen could leave to help him fully recover from the effects of his life-threatening motorcycle accident last summer.

The former Crystal Palace striker Jansen has been a target for several clubs since the Blackburn manager, Graeme Souness, admitted that Jansen could be loaned out to play first-team football. However, Burnley were turned down by Blackburn because it was considered too sensitive a move given the rivalry that exists between supporters of the two Lancashire clubs.

The Blackburn defender Craig Short has signed a 12-month extension to his current deal at Ewood Park. The 35-year-old former Everton and Derby County centre-half insists that his age will be no barrier to him continuing to compete for a first-team place. Rovers will be a man shorter in defence when Henning Berg retires in the summer.

Short said: "I don't feel ready to finish playing, I love it here and I never had an inkling to go anywhere else."

"We have the best facilities I have known," Short added, "and I am delighted to look forward to an extended stay."

The Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has pulled out of signing the Croatian international Milan Rapaic after the out-of-contract striker preferred to train with Celtic after Wanderers made an approach for him.

Allardyce feels that Rapaic, who is a free agent after a spell in Turkey, only rated Bolton as a second-choice option and has decided against giving him a contract.