ALAN KELLY has been definitely ruled out of Saturday's FA Cup clash with Middlesbrough - meaning an elevation for one of Blackburn Rovers' young keepers to the substitutes' bench at the very least.

Republic of Ireland international Kelly was injured in training for last night's clash with Russia and returned to East Lancashire early for treatment on his knee.

But Kelly's likely absence means that either teenagers Keiron Renton or Ryan Robinson will be on the bench on Saturday, with Miller on stand-by for the Cup final.

Alan Miller was brought back from his loan spell at St Johnstone, but he will not be registered in time for Saturday's game.

But, despite Kelly's injury not being as bad as first thought, it still needs intensive treatment and he is also a big doubt for the Worthington Cup final against Spurs on February 24.

Rovers were today sweating on the fitness of Brad Friedel who played for the USA in Italy last night in a match which Rovers target Tonino Asta, of Torino, made his debut.

Friedel played the full match and was only beaten once by Alessandro Del Piero's winner in the second half.

Graeme Souness' number one choice would be expected to start both at The Riverside on Saturday and at the Millennium Stadium.

Kelly was in philosophical mood after being forced to miss the match with Russia in which he was expected to stake a claim for a World Cup final spot.

"I saw Rovers physio Paul Kelly yesterday and had a good examination, but there is still a lot of fluid on the knee and it's just a case of manipulating that to get rid of it.

"I'm not putting any time limit on it, but I am definitely out of Saturday's game and, as for the Cup final, I will just have to wait and see to how things develop.

"I can only take it one day at a time to see how I go."

The good news is that there is no ligament damage but with John Filan now at Wigan, Souness may still move to bring more experienced cover in for Friedel and Miller.

Former Rovers keeper Vince O'Keefe is in charge of bringing the young keepers through the Academy set-up and the club currently has four junior international stoppers on its books.

And Scot Renton and Cumbrian Robinson will be vying for that spot on the bench at Middlesbrough.