JOHN O’SHEA HAILED Robbie Keane as “absolute legend” after the striker’s latest hat-trick.

Keane hit a quickfire treble in 12 first-half minutes as Ireland thrashed Gibraltar 7-0 in Dublin.

The win temporarily moved Ireland to the top of Group D before Poland turned the table upside down by shocking Germany.

Martin O’Neill’s side face the world champions on Tuesday evening, and O’Shea says they need captain Keane to be at his lethal best again.

“People will obviously crib because they are desperate to knock Robbie as soon as they can, but believe me he is an absolute legend, purely because of his goalscoring, his finishing.

He still has to put those chances away, in the right place at the right time. He’s a special, special player and will still be for years to come.

“We have to keep him fit. We’ll wait and see what happens on Tuesday, but he’ll be a very important player for us again.

“As I said, he’s a special special player. I’m just delighted he’s in our team.

“Hopefully we can create him a few [chances] on Tuesday night because nine times out of ten, they’ll be in the back of the net.

“We won’t get as many chances as we did tonight against Germany so we when we do create them, we’re going to have to put them away.”

David Meyler played the full 90 minutes at right back this evening in the absence of the injured Seamus Coleman, and O’Shea believes that the Hull man will be an able deputy if named there in Gelsenkirchen.

“David will definitely do a job for us there without a doubt, but obviously we can change formation.

There are a couple of things we can do as well, but it’s a weird game in a sense playing a team that’s new to the competition and then you’re heading to a team that’s won the World Cup in the summer.

“We’re under no illusions it will be a very different test on Tuesday night but it’s one we are looking forward to.”

Robbie makes history with treble but admits: I don’t look at record books