I am not sure if supporters realise, but even if players get injured in a league game before the break, their country still has the right to call on them to be checked and also treated by their own country’s medical department – then, even for an international friendly on the other side of the world, whether they travel is not up to you.
So, while playing for your country is a great honour and I understand why those who get the opportunity rarely turn down the chance to fulfil those dreams, for us managers having your top players away from you is a frustrating and worrying time.
Your players can be thousands of miles away, let loose to people whose livelihoods do not depend on your club’s results – and you quickly learn how certain managers and countries would be much more accommodating than you when it comes to, let’s say, relaxing more freely!
One example of that happened at Stoke when we were fighting for promotion to the Premier League in the spring of 2008 and Ricardo Fuller, who in my opinion was the Championship’s most gifted forward that season, was called up by Jamaica.
Ric was really patriotic and proud of his heritage and would always show his utmost commitment to his country. Having said all that, he was always a player we gave special attention to when international breaks came around, for the reasons above.
On this occasion, I could not even find a Jamaica game for that international break when we checked the fixture list, but Ric assured me that there was a game being played on the island – but only one game, and he would be back early, and have a full week to prepare for our next league match.
My assistant, David Kemp, was convinced that the venue for Ricardo’s ‘game’ would actually see him relaxing on one of Jamaica’s fabulous beaches, but we took Ric’s word for it that there was an official match – he was our talisman and, with some really big games coming up in the run-in, it was imperative to keep him happy.
When I arrived back at the training ground the following Monday, I was given all the medical data I explained about above, for all our lads who were away on international duty.
Everything seemed in order with them but there was one problem – Ricardo had not arrived back yet. Dave Watson, our physio, had tried and failed to get hold of any information concerning him, his game or his whereabouts.
It was such a big week for Stoke too, as we were preparing to face Mick McCarthy’s Wolves team, who were also fighting for promotion, at a packed Molineux on the Saturday.
We had sold several thousand tickets for the Wolves game and with us fourth and them just outside the play-off places, we knew they would be right at it.
I needed Ric, but Tuesday and Wednesday passed and there was still no sign of our star centre-forward.
