Pulling on the international jersey must be the proudest moment of a player’s career. Just imagine it, walking out at Wembley with 90,000 fans singing the national anthem…
This is it – the ultimate pinnacle of your career – then whack – a crippling tackle comes in from a part time fireman playing for Armenia, and you’re out for six months.
It’s bound to happen. Players nowadays endure hellish long seasons and if you’re a top international you are more than likely going to be playing three times in a week.
International duties have once again taken their toll on the Premiership, with no fewer than nine players returning home this week with sick notes.
Why-oh-why is this allowed to happen? I can’t remember the last time Fernando Torres didn’t hobble off the plane back from Spain.
Along with the injury to Gerrard’s ever troublesome groin, Liverpool could be without their star duo for what could be a season-defining week for the Anfield club. Plus, Javier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva will only return today from a long old poke to South America.
Wayne Rooney, arguably in the form of his life, has been ruled out of United’s game against Bolton and most likely the Champions League trip to Moscow on Wednesday following his knock against Ukraine.
The real blow to each club is that neither of the games really mattered to either country as they had both qualified anyway. Capello will no doubt have had a tirade down the phone from Ferguson, whilst Benitez must wonder why he ever lets Torres out of his sight.
Grella (Blackburn), Ricketts (Bolton), Castillo (Wolves), Whelan (Stoke) and Kyrgiakos (Liverpool) have all felt the brunt of the World Cup Qualifiers and will miss at least this weekend’s fixtures. Michael Ballack will only just recover after a tough tackle from Chelsea team-mate Yuri Zhirkov in Germany’s game against Russia.
The most notable reason for absence this week has to go to Christian Benitez of Birmingham. He missed his flight home – a backlash from Alex Mcleish in the offing.
We know that injuries can’t be prevented, but is there a way to reduce the international injury mayhem?
Perhaps teams in the World Cup Qualifiers could play each other only once a la the old Uefa Cup style bout? It would certainly reduce the number of games.
Or perhaps the minnow teams such as San Marino, Andorra and Liechtenstein could have their own mini pre-qualifying league so there are less games and less chance of a reckless challenge coming in from a semi pro.
Let’s face it: these teams don’t stand a chance of qualifying anyway.
But fewer games means less playing time for team-mates to gel. And if there were fewer qualifiers the FA would probably resort to staging more money-spinning friendlies.
It’s impossible to escape the hectic schedule that is now demanded of a professional footballer.
With every Premiership game as vital as the next – is it any wonder that we see notable players dropping out of pointless international friendlies which seem to be designed for TV executives rather than fitness coaches?
By Harry Hesp
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Sounds like the bitter rant of a Liverpool fan
I see what you mean about the sheer number of games, but down in the lower leagues players often play 2-3 games a week due to midweek fixtures.
The bigger Prem teams have bigger squads, besides it’ll be more interesting watching someone like Liverpool take on Sunderland without their two best players!
However, I totally agree in regards to Pre-Qualifying for some of the minnows, no offence but those games are a slight waste of time, money and fitness for the players.
Nice read Harry, got to agree with you on the way that clubs are bound to feel the strain of it. Tuncay is doubtful to stay with Stoke past January as hes upset he isnt getting played which is as a result of him being tired from internationals.
But my dad wants me to mention that the lower league team ie. Leed Utd had 3 international players that have returned unscathed so maybe its just Premier League players being femmes haha!!!
Good read!
It is worrying when players get injured playing in basically meaningless fixtures, but on the other hand, when they don’t play they get loads of stick in the media for disrespecting their national side.
As for the pre-qualifying thing. while it would be a good idea for the big countries such as ourselves, for countries like San Marino and Liechestenstein, these games are their players cup finals. It would be a bit rubbish for their players if the only time they got to play the big guns was once every couple of years in a friendly. And this is probably why they take the games so seriously as well. For a country like San Marino, losing 3-0 to England would probably result in a week long rave!
The UEFA cup idea is a good one, the amount of games played in qualifying is effectively a quarter of a season-although I’m not sure how they’d sort out home and away with regards to the fact that each team only plays each other once. Perhaps a seeding system? I can’t remember how the UEFA cup did it.