Tuesday 14 October 2014

Internationals and Injuries

I do support England and want them to do well, but given a choice between England and Liverpool and there is only one answer, Liverpool every time, without a shadow of a doubt.  Liverpool always have been and always will be my priority and that is the case with every fan, their club will almost always take precedence.  So when the England manager or any international manager selects a Liverpool player I am pleased, proud even, that they rate our players so highly but I expect them to return to our club in a decent condition, not injured and out of action for weeks missing important games.
   In the past I have criticised other clubs and players for not representing their country when the opportunity has arisen, claiming that certain players, on occasion, have faked an injury or perhaps exaggerated the seriousness of one in order to get out of a fixture that may be seen as not as important as an upcoming league or cup tie for their club.  some players have then been seen to make a miraculous recovery from an injury that kept them out of a friendly on the other side of the world then making an appearance for their club, playing a full ninety minutes, within a couple of days.  Some players have had repeated injuries or other reasons to make themselves unavailable for almost every international fixture for a number of years.  Recently managers have claimed in the press that players have begged for reasons to get out of playing international games and I assume have been given their excuse.  All the above appear morally wrong, when most young boys dream of playing for their country, surely that should remain the dream for professionals and surely the national team should get the unreserved backing of our clubs, giving England maximum chance if success, you would think so.  Is this true however when England and their manager along with other countries continually show disrespect and even contempt towards the clubs that are loaning them their very expensive players and the fans of those clubs who hand over the cash to pay for those players?
Time and again Liverpool players return from international duty injured and unable to play for their club, some countries appear to do the best they can, after all injuries can happen any time and are always a risk.  Wales were forced to play on a sub standard pitch, contributing to injuries to Liverpool's Allen and Arsenal's Ramsey this week but this is not the fault of Wales, I assume they have made representation to UEFA regarding the standard of the facilities they were asked to use.  But some are at fault, was it necessary for Can to be playing flat out whilst leading 8-0 in injury time at the end of an U21 international when perhaps instructions could have been issued to players that could have prevented an injury?  The subsequent injury means he is unavailable for Liverpool for six weeks, just as it looked like he was settling at his new club.  An enforced break for the player at a vital time in his career, there is no guarantee that he will get the same chances to breakthrough in to the first team on his return, others could move ahead of him in the pecking order.  
Unfortunately for Liverpool more of our players play for England than any other country and they are by far the worst in looking after players or considering their clubs when they are on international duty, led as they are by the bungling, outdated, fool of a manager Hodgson who's antiquated methods seem to be actually causing more injuries.  Last season Strurridge informed him of an injury and he was still told to play to "test his resolve" causing further injury and him to be missing from Liverpool for several games in a season where we lost the title by only a couple of points, it could be argued that his presence through this period could have won us those valuable extra two points. 
Then it happens again his year with Rodgers telling us that Sturridge was made to train full on, including a full game, on what, at Liverpool, would have been a day where he would have been completing recovery exercises, when after completing a long sprint and a shot he reported an injury that will keep him out for up to six games.  Bad enough that England are using such outdated methods and their sports scientists don't understand how to recover multi million pound players but apparently Liverpool told them and gave them a file on each of their players, that England and Hodgson have chosen to ignore this file,resulting in injury to the player is a disgrace.
We were also informed by the England camp the Jordan Henderson had "picked up an ankle injury and had limped out of training" but then the very next day he plays a full ninety minutes in the heart of midfield, more to do  with having no suitable replacement than Henderson being fully fit I suspect and more good luck than good management that he is available for Liverpool this weekend.
in a time when we are told that one of the few ways to improve England's levels of success are for the national team and clubs to work together you would think that England and the national manager Hodgson would be trying to improve those relations not constantly ignoring the needs of the clubs and their fans and risking millions of pounds worth of talent every time they play.  Liverpool and Rodgers do provide players to international teams every time and we are proud to do so, we accept that injuries can and will happen but please give us he respect of working with us to keep them to a minimum.

@lfclumo

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