Will the ghost of Roy Keane be selected for Ireland's big game?

As Ireland prepares to play Spain today in the most important match of the country's history, one man has again dominated Irish football. It's not Roy Keane, the Manchester United captain who returned home in a huff of four-letter abuse; nor is it Mick McCarthy, Ireland's manager and the subject of that abuse.

The real star of the Irish game is Eamon Dunphy. The big question is: will he be returning to Irish television screens in his role as football pundit on the national station RTE, after being sent off for having been "under the influence" while live on air?

The station's bosses refused to rule out a comeback.

"Dunphy definitely won't be on air tomorrow for the game against Spain," said an RTE spokeswoman yesterday. "But beyond that I really couldn't say. No decision has yet been made on his future role at this World Cup."

When Dunphy turned up apparently drunk on RTE last Sunday morning, nobody was that surprised. It was just another chapter in a turbulent life of public rows, vendettas and a succession of drink-driving charges, which have turned the journalist and broadcaster into a love-to-hate figure in Irish society.

The man who once complained about Dublin "you can't get good coke in this town", arrived in the studios straight from a nightclub. He then proceeded, between lop-sided grins, to make a few predictions before disappearing from the screen during an advertisement break. He was "suspended" by the station later in the day.

He said afterwards: "I was not actually drunk – I had been. I had not been terribly drunk, but I had not slept or been to bed."

A former Millwall and Ireland player, Dunphy is writing Roy Keane's biography and has become his confidant.

During tense negotiations to try to get Keane back to Japan after a bad-tempered bust-up with Mr McCarthy, Dunphy told Keane: "Let your head rule your heart."

His comments have led many Irish football fans to blame Dunphy for Keane's failure to apologise and go back and play for his country.

Eamon Dunphy has dominated the last three World Cups: in the Italian campaign he waged a vendetta against the then Irish manager, Jack Charlton; in the US he constantly belittled the Irish FA and now he's centre-stage as a result of the Keane affair.

All the controversy has not only made him a household name, it has made Dunphy Ireland's highest paid journalist and commentator. Apart from being a football pundit for RTE, he has a daily radio show on Today FM and is reported to be paid £200,000 a year for a column in Ireland on Sunday.