Boss Paul Jewell has revealed that the Blues wanted central defender Tommy Smith to miss New Zealand’s friendly with Jamaica this week due to a knee injury but were forced to allow the 21-year-old to travel after the All Whites threatened to invoke the five-day rule.
FIFA’s rules state that a national association can prevent players from representing their clubs if they are pulled out of international matches: "A player who has been called up by his association for one of its representative teams is, unless otherwise agreed by the relevant association, not entitled to play for the club with which he is registered during the period for which he has been released or should have been released pursuant to the provisions of this annexe.
"This restriction on playing for the club shall, moreover, be prolonged by five days in the event that the player, for whatsoever reason, did not wish to or was unable to comply with the call-up.”
Jewell says the Blues tried to withdraw Smith ahead of the All Whites’ 3-2 defeat to the Reggae Boyz in Auckland on Wednesday but received a terse response from New Zealand Football: "Tommy got a bit of a bang on his knee against Brighton which was swollen up.
"We emailed the New Zealand doctor to say we were a bit concerned about him flying, what with swelling, but we got a short, sharp, swift email to say ‘Make sure he’s on the flight or we’ll invoke the five-day rule’.
"Tommy went and his knee was OK. We gave him some anti-inflammatories to settle his knee down and then obviously he played. But if he hadn’t have gone they would have stopped him being involved against Bristol City.”
The Blues boss says that if the knee problem had been more significant, Smith would have stayed behind regardless of whether that would have meant he would have missed Saturday’s match: "It’s never ideal for one of your players [to travel a long way for an international friendly], especially when he’s got a bit of a knock. Luckily enough that’s settled down.
"If it had been more serious we probably would have kept him here and took the rap because Tommy’s fitness and health is more important than a friendly game or even a game for us.”
Smith’s involvement on Saturday could still be in doubt with him not home until early this morning: "He’s not due back until 6 o’clock on Friday morning, so we’ll have to see how he is.
"We’ve tried to keep him on English time as much as possible. He’s been given sleeping tablets, so hopefully he’ll have slept on the plane.
"We’ll see how he is on Friday morning. If he’s obviously tired then it might be a late decision on Saturday.”
If not, Jewell says Ibrahima Sonko will come back into the team having recovered from his dislocated rib: "Sonks is fit so we’ve got an experienced player to come in if Tommy doesn’t quite make it.”
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