Roy Keane’s last coaching role was as Nottingham Forest assistant manager in 2019Roy Keane is under consideration for the vacant manager’s job at Sunderland.
Keane, 50, had a successful spell on Wearside between 2006 and 2008, when he took the Black Cats into the Premier League.
However, his only roles since leaving Ipswich in 2011 have been as an assistant and a television pundit.
Keane enjoyed a long and successful playing career, principally with Manchester United, where he won the Premier League seven times.
A combative midfielder, he captained United from 1997 to 2005 and also won 67 caps for Republic of Ireland.
After a short spell at Celtic, he retired from playing in May 2006 and took over at the Stadium of Light in August of that year.
He led them to the Championship title that season and kept them up in 2007-08 but resigned in December 2008.
A two-year spell at Ipswich brought less success before he was appointed Martin O’Neill’s assistant for the Republic of Ireland in 2013.
Keane held that role for five years, and combined it with a very brief period assisting Paul Lambert at Aston Villa in 2014, before again serving under O’Neill at Nottingham Forest in 2019.
Sunderland sacked manager Lee Johnson on Sunday in the wake of the 6-0 defeat at Bolton, with the club third in League One.
This is their fourth successive season in the third tier after suffering back-to-back relegations in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
In a recent interview with former Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville, the Irishman questioned why he did not get linked with jobs.
It is understood Keane is not the only candidate for the job.