Roy Keane has been given until 5 p.m. on Friday to make any appeal against his five-match ban and £150,000 sterling fine.
It had been thought the Manchester United skipper had been given a fortnight from the date of his original hearing on Tuesday, October 15th to respond to the double penalty after the Football Association found him guilty of two misconduct charges.
At his pre-Champions League press conference yesterday, United boss Alex Ferguson indicated that the deadline had been extended but at the time, FA officials refused to confirm it.
However, because the letter detailing the punishment was not issued until October 18th, Keane has 14 days from that date, effectively the end of normal office hours on Friday.
It is still not known whether the former Republic of Ireland skipper will appeal against the penalty.
He returned from a short break yesterday to resume his recovery from a hip operation and is due to start his ban on November 4th, with a domestic return pencilled in for the December 7th encounter with Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Ferguson still hopes to get his captain a game before then with the Champions League tussle with Bayer Leverkusen on November 13th an option, given Keane's clearance to play in Europe.
At his hearing, Keane was found guilty of making an "improperly motivated tackle" on Alfie Haaland in last year's Old Trafford Manchester derby and also profiting from the incident following comments in his autobiography.