England captain Derby County captain Richard Keogh is out with a serious knee injury for the remainder of the season. Such messages are not uncommon in football. However, he pulled the injury, but not in the sport, but in a car accident on Tuesday - after he had drunk with several teammates apparently too much alcohol.
The 33-year-old Keogh, Irish international, had previously been invited to a dinner with his team. "While the majority of players acted responsibly and left the event at 8:00 pm, a small group, including Keogh, continued drinking all night long," the official statement from the club said.
Subsequently, Keogh and his teammates Mason Bennett and Tom Lawrence sat in the car. Keogh is said to have sat in the back seat when the car drove into a lamppost. The captain suffered the grave knee injury.
The club was outraged by the players and announced high penalties for them. The professionals were aware that they were only allowed to "take a drink in the group". What Keogh and his teammates would allow goes far beyond that. It will also "use the situation to redouble efforts to point out the dangers of alcohol".
Keogh has been under contract with Derby since 2012, completing 356 competitive games for the club. Derby narrowly missed promotion to the Premier League last season. Currently, the club is ranked 18th in the championship. For Ireland Keogh was used 26 times, most recently he was mostly over 90 minutes on the court. Ireland lead their group D with eleven points in five European Championship qualifiers. Whether Keough in case of a successful qualification in time for the European Championships fit, was initially unknown.
