PADDY KENNY, the Sheffield United goalkeeper, will not hide from the might of Manchester United at Bramall Lane tomorrow despite having his eyebrow bitten off in a curry-house brawl this week.

Neil Warnock has given warning that he will dismiss any player with personal problems that affect their on-field performance but is supporting Kenny through his marital strife. Rather than imposing any sanction over the incident in the Indian, the United manager commended Kenny on declining dessert.

Kenny was left out of the Ireland squad — who beat San Marino 5-0 on Wednesday — because of personal troubles but these were exacerbated when he took advantage of his time off to go on a night out with friends in Halifax on Sunday.

Having moved on from Jumping Jacks bar to Ziggy’s Spice House in his home town, one friend claimed to have slept with Kenny’s wife, Karen. When the goalkeeper allegedly responded by breaking a bottle over his rival’s head, the man retaliated by biting off Kenny’s eyebrow. At 3am on Monday, Kenny was taken to Calderdale Royal Hospital and required 12 stitches.

“He’s let himself down and I think he’s more embarrassed about it than anything else,” Warnock said. “The lads have got to learn that wherever you are when you’re a Premiership footballer, you’re news. I’ve told Paddy in the past he shouldn’t be going out in Halifax. All of a sudden he’s back out and it isn’t a coincidence. He’s let himself down. He won’t be going out in Halifax again.

“If I thought it was affecting a player’s performance, I’d kick him out of the club. You’ve got to have discipline. But I don’t think this was Paddy’s fault. He should be OK for Saturday. He trained very well today.”

Asked whether Kenny would be in a fit mental state to cope with Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs bearing down on him, Warnock replied: “I don’t think so, no — but that’s no change from when I first signed him.

“If he’s fit, he’s fit. I’ve spoken to Paddy over the last few weeks about his personal problems and I sympathise with him. I’ve offered him every support I could. Now I’ll probably have to start picking the friends he goes out with.”

Warnock signed Kenny for Bury from Bradford Park Avenue for £10,000 eight years ago, then took him to Bramall Lane in 2002. The goalkeeper, a committed consumer of fast food after his non-league upbringing, had a reputation for being overweight in the lower divisions but lost a stone last summer and has excelled during his first season in the Barclays Premiership.

“He’s done well,” Warnock said. “He made a cock-up for the goal against Chelsea but other than that he’s had a great season. I wouldn’t swap him for many people, if any.”

Deceived by Frank Lampard’s long-range effort at Bramall Lane three weeks ago, Kenny’s other blip was his return to the Ireland team last month when they were beaten 5-2 by Cyprus. He withdrew from the squad for the 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic, citing an injury, and was omitted from this week’s game. “He had a phone call from Alan Kelly [Ireland’s goalkeeping coach] last week saying that, because of his personal problems, he’d be better off being left out but Paddy didn’t accept that,” Warnock said. “It probably would have done him the world of good to go away. I wish he had gone now.

“He didn’t have any dessert [at the curry house], that’s the positive for me, so at least he’s watching his diet. I don’t think being out at 3 o’clock in the morning is a problem on a night when players are allowed out. I think the other guy was probably hungrier than Paddy, by the sounds of it.”

Warnock recently dealt with a dressing-room spat between Ade Akinbiyi and Claude Davis by getting the players to shake hands. When Alan Quinn was involved in an unsavoury incident in a Sheffield pub last season — for which he was fined £2,000 at a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to affray in the wake of a fight over a game of pool — the manager suggested that his players were allowed to get drunk as long as it was in the privacy of their own homes.