However, the City boss wants his team to keep fighting until the end of the season to better their current position of 12th.
"It does not mean that we have nothing to play for in our 10 remaining games because every game is worth winning and we want to finish as high as we can in the table," says Keegan in tomorrow's programme notes.
"If we had a fully-fit squad I would be confident of us at least equalling our highest position in the Premiership in my time at the club.
"But we haven't, and the loss of some key players during the season and now Shaun Wright-Phillips means that finishing 9th or higher would be an even more satisfying achievement, although we did set our sights on a top-6 place at the start of the season."