Ciaran you have hit a new low with this one. Robbie has turned up every time for Ireland and always puts his all in even when his form is poor and his efforts may be misguided. He was assessed by the Irish medical team and sent back to Liverpool. He has now recovered and is available for Liverpool on Saturday. Do you think that all injuries should last a min. of 2 weeks. Or what is your expert medical opinion.
In Trap we trust
What bit of the he was assessed by the Irish medical team do you not get.
In Trap we trust
Oh rubbish, can you really see them saying 'We think you are lying about being injured, so you are going to play on Weds whether you like it or not.' This whole bein g assessed by the national team doctors is a gimmick. No player will ever be passed fit to play unless against the wishes of their club.
I was a bit suspicious to be honest but given that it was only a friendly I wasn't too bothered, completely different situation to Finnan pulling out, Finnan pulling out really hurt our chances of qualifying last year while Robbie pulling out of this friendly isn't going to make any difference for our prospects of qualifying
personally i think it really is a waste of time to have a friendly sandwiched between two club fixtures. what on earth are the international management team going to possibly learn. i mean any regular players won't be happily sent by their clubs anyway so it is only good for the lads who aren't going to get a full regular game (i.e folan, kilbane, gibson, whelan, o'shea).
in fairness to the clubs who play in europe the schedule would have been like this...
league game, champions league, league game, carling game, league game, international Friendly, league game, champions league, league game... and not too long to the busy Christmas period.
it really is a bit of an ask imho and can't be too surprising when players are withdrawn due to (even slight) knocks. i mean most of the big teams wouldn't even play all of their players in the weeks involving league, champ lge, league games anyway so it is a bit of an ask on the players.
btw: club v country - country every time!!!
I think it was a reasonable post by Ciaran to be honest. He only said he was a bit sceptical when it came to Pool players and injuries, not sure why so many got touchy about it. Fair enough I personally don't think Robbie Keane is the type that would go along with it especially when I would think he would want to score as many goals for Ireland as possible before he finishes up, twould be nice if he beat the English record of 49!!!Having said that he's only barely getting his game at L'Pool these days so probably wouldn't want to p!ss Rafa off by playing. On the other hand if he was carrying a knock, minor or otherwise it was better for everybody, Ireland included that he gave this one a miss, bigger fish to fry down the road.
As for the whole "being assessed by an Irish doctor" thing....complete rubbish. How many people here have got a cert off a doctor to say they missed work due to illness when really had a couple of days on da beer!!!
If he's got a slight knock, why risk him making the injury more serious by playing a game that means nothing in terms of qualification?
We already know what Keane can do, and his withdrawal meant that we got to have a look at Folan (which in my view was probably the biggest positive from the friendly).
Bottom line: if it was a qualifier, I'm sure he would have played, but why risk injury in a game like this?
course he would have. also with proper games they get released for 5 days before the game and generally have another 2 or 3 after before playing for their clubs whereby most little knocks have cleared up (for the international game anyway). this sandwiching internationals between 2 league fixtures is a bit silly in that regard as even a very slight knock on the sat/sun and you are 99% going to miss the game as a call is made the night after your league game or the next day at the latest.
Gerrard has been ruled out for Liverpool tomorrow by the way.
Not sure why you're pushing the Benitez angle though. I thought Alex Ferguson was the master of pulling players out of friendlies only for them to play for Man U days later. Giggs must have missed countless games for Wales down though the years only to recover for the weekend.
As others have been saying I'm sure if it was a qualifier he would have taken the risk and played.
I'd imagine very few players play every game when they are 100%, there's usually little niggles that get picked up over the course of a season. Because of the saturday - wednesday - saturday schedule of games that top players have to stick to, they don't get time to let these little niggles clear up.
There's no doubt in my mind that Robbie Keane does have a shoulder problem (when was that last time we saw the forward roll goal celebration?) and the medical team felt he was better off resting it than risking anything in a friendly. For what it's worth, what we learned from playing Folan up front might have just made up from missing out on giving him another cap.
When we sad an Irish doctor we did not mean he went out to Tallaght to the family doctor and sad any chance of a cert for Il Trap there doc. He was assessed by the Irsh medical team, I don't think they would be handing out "certs" to Keane just for the craic cause he does not feel like playinig or has had one too many Coors lights. The doctors he was assessed by are FAI doctors.
In Trap we trust
What the story with people complaining that players were on the beer at the weekend before a friendly. Fair play to them. My only gripe is that john o se fell down the stairs of Krystal and not coppers or even flannerys!
P.S Kevin doyle is a gentleman.
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