James McClean believes he will make a quicker than expected return from injury ahead of the Euro 2020 playoff.
The Ireland winger is in Dubai for specialist rehab work on his medial knee ligament issue ahead of the March 26 clash with Slovakia.
“It’s a torn MCL and a torn meniscus,” he said. “They said it was a long-standing tear, so I’ve obviously had it a long time but it wasn’t giving me any trouble.
“They said it would take six weeks, so I’m hoping it’s three or four. I’ve always been a good healer and I’m hoping it’s the case this time around.”
McClean, who was injured in a game against Preston, is wearing a large knee brace and added: “This thing has been on for nine days and it’s annoying me!
“It’s driving me insane that I can’t do the things that I normally do, and it’s only been two weeks since the injury.
“Hopefully it’ll only be another week or two but we’ll see. I’ve had a good week of training here in Dubai. I'm injured due to bad luck, it was a tackle, not a muscle injury.”
Meanwhile, McClean reckons Robbie Keane was the best player he ever played with for club or country.
Speaking to Dubai-based fitness podcast ‘Dubai Reel’, McClean said: “"For what Robbie did for Ireland, I’ll say him.
"It was the latter stages of his international career but he was a yard ahead in his head so you can only imagine what he was like in his prime.”
And McClean, 30, also opened up on life under Roy Keane when he was the Republic of Ireland assistant.
McClean said: "He's direct and abrupt but in the right way. He's such a big personality and he expects high standards.
"Sometimes players are not up to that level and that must be hard for Roy as well as he sets such high standards.
"Maybe that’s where a few people clashed but I never really had a problem with Roy.
“If you can't learn off Roy Keane and take advice from him, you're not going to take it off anyone.
"As a United fan, he was one of my heroes growing up and it was a pleasure to work under him for the time I did.”
