The Republic of Ireland international will remain on loan with the Premier League side until February 25th.
McLeish told the club’s official website: “Robbie is a guy who is going to be playing in a huge tournament at the end of the season (Euro 2012).
“I’m sure Robbie Keane will not want to let his standards drop at this stage of his career.
“If anything, we should have a massively motivated boy on our hands.”
McLeish added: “We have been pursuing Robbie to bring him in with his extra experience in terms of the attack.
“I believe we could be doing with that when you see one or two of our players getting injured over the last couple of weeks. It does leave us a little bit short.
“We’ve got young kids trying to prove themselves in the Barclays Premier League but it’s very scatter-gun the experience they are getting with 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there.
“I really believe we could be doing with that wee bit of experience that someone like Robbie provides.”
