Yorke made his first appearance of the campaign in last weekend's excellent home draw with Arsenal.

He has been restricted so far after suffering a fractured eye socket during pre-season, but proved he is still capable of playing his part with an assured performance against the energetic Gunners.

Keane said: "We knew Yorkie could play a role this season. He's been playing catch-up since missing two or three weeks with the quite nasty injury he got in pre-season.

"The lads have done reasonably well without him so he has struggled to get back into the team.

"We know that Yorkie has the experience and I think he's as good as anyone we've got at the club at that holding role in midfield.

"It was a bit of a risk throwing him back in against a big club like Arsenal but we knew he would come through that.

"Hopefully he will come back from the Trinidad & Tobago games OK and be challenging for a starting place in the team."

Yorke played half of T&T's 9-0 friendly demolition of the Dominican Republic on Thursday and is likely to be prominent in his country's World Cup qualifiers against Guatemala today and USA on Wednesday.