New Zealand assistant coach Neil Emblen says Tommy Smith’s target of helping Town win promotion to the Premier League this season is behind his decision to give up international football for the next 12 months. New Zealand Football announced 24-year-old Smith’s intention to take a break on Monday.
”I think he's pretty open to facing the music and outlining his reasons, but he's just prioritising himself because he wants to achieve something that he hasn't done yet,” former Wolves and Norwich man Emblen told the New Zealand Herald.
"I understand that every time he jumps on a plane, it puts his situation at Ipswich Town under jeopardy. I get that.
"And that's what he is now doing with New Zealand. He is now saying 'I'm not prepared to do that and I'm going to put my All Whites chances at risk'. Someone like Michael Boxall could easily get established in his position, but he's aware of what he's doing."
He added: "I have sympathy for it, but I also don't because there are players who have had long successful international careers both in New Zealand and Australia who have been able to find the balance between both.
"How the rest of the players feel about it will be a telling factor. Is there resentment in the group or anything like that, because that could change the dynamic. I think there will be some players who get wound up by it and others who won't mind.
"I don't think the relationship is dead and buried by any means, he said 'it's not over unless you say it's over'."
New Zealand's high performance manager Fred de Jong played down suggestions of a rift between Smith and New Zealand Football, telling One News: "I don't think it is a falling out. Tommy has come to us on the back on the Uzbekistan tour and requested that he not be selected for any New Zealand team for the next 12 months.
"We're disappointed when any top player decides that they don't want to turn up for national team and he'll have his reasons and they are for him to disclose.
"From our perspective we want players who are fully committed to the New Zealand cause and are fully committed to getting to [the 2018 World Cup in] Russia.”
Smith has won 27 full caps and has scored two goals and appeared at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and also at the 2012 London Olympics.