Worrying time for Newcastle as Ameobi and Best receive international call ups.
Posted on January 25th, 2011 | 12 Comments |
The 24 year old hitman has been called for the squad for the Republic’s upcoming game against Wales on February 8th. This will be the first game in the inaugural ‘Carling Nations Cup’ to be held in Ireland. This comes fairly soon after the news that fellow striker, Shola Ameobi, has been selected for the Nigeria squad for a friendly match against Guatemala on February 9.
With Andy Carroll’s delayed return from a thigh injury, and Newcastle facing matches against and in form Blackburn team on the 12th, and a resceduled clash with Birmingham on the 15th (or possibly the 19th or 20th), this could be a worry for the already injury ravaged squad should the players pick up any knocks. If the worst were to happen, and both players were injured in some way, Peter Lovenkrands and Xisco would be the only remaining first team strikers. Current injuries include Steven Taylor (hamstring), Dan Gosling (knee), Alan Smith and Ryan Taylor (ankle and foot), Hatem Ben Arfa (broken leg), as well as the aforementioned Carroll.
While it is thought that Best will definitely be reporting for for duty with Republic of Ireland manager, Giovanni Trappatoni, the situation with Ameobi is slightly less clear, especially so as the Nigerian match is only a friendly.
Speaking on the call up, Newcastle United’s manager, Alan Pardew said:
“I haven’t talked to Shola about it, but we’ll discuss it.”
Meanwhile, Ameobi himself seemed to place the emphasis on his club, rather than his International career, saying:
“A lot of things have been said in the past, but I’ve always stated my focus has been on Newcastle, and playing for them week in, week out.
“But if I keep on playing well, whatever happens, happens.”
The situation could be taken out of Newcastle’s hands, however. As my colleague, Hugh, reported in a previous ‘blog, the Nigeria v Guatemala game takes place during an official FIFA international window. This means that under FIFA rules, the Nigeria team could insist that Shola was released to play by Newcastle United.
Here’s hoping that everything goes well for Shola and Leon, and that they both remain unscathed through this difficult period in the season.
Meanwhile, on one of those injuries mentioned above, the double leg break of midfield star, Hatem Ben Arfa, the French international has been told by doctors that he must not rush his return to first team action. Speaking in an interview, the French-Tunisian wizard said:
“I have a mad desire to play football again,”
“But the doctors told me I should not rush it. We must be rigorous in this regard.”
Ben Arfa has been recovering in Paris, attending the French National team’s National Technical Centre in Clairefontaine. On this he added:
“The closeness of my family in the Paris region has made me decide to recover at Clairefontaine. Things are going well so far.”
Despite the impatience to get such a talented player back into the team, let’s hope that he doesn’t rush back too soon, especially after what happened to Dan Gosling when he looked dead set for a return to action after a similar long spell out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwtFyah-bYY maybe this man shud have a call up too!!!