Eurosport - Tue, 18 Nov 16:01:00 2008
The South African FA have criticised Everton for preventing Steven Pienaar linking up with them ahead of Wednesday's friendly with Cameroon.
Everton claim the former Ajax man has suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury after coming on as a 72nd-minute substitute in the 1-1 draw against Middlesbrough on Sunday.
The Merseyside club sent a letter to SAFA late on Sunday to inform them of Pienaar's withdrawal.
Bafana Bafana team manager Sipho Nkumane told www.iol.co.za: "They said he failed a medical test after Sunday's match and thus he would not travel.
"But we are not impressed because they informed us very late. This was obviously done to make it difficult for us to get him here.
"We have requested a medical report and then we'll make a decision.
"The thing is, if they say he's injured, as they allege, he can't play in their next match."
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Comment 1 - 5 of 5
agreed. how can they be upset that a guy who struggled through 18 minutes of football, wont be travelling halfway across to play for them?
well said
Anyone seeing Pienaar play last Sunday when he came on as a substitute (having not been fit enough to start) could tell that he was not fit.
If they really believe that a player withdrawn from an International squad must miss the next League game then what on earth will they make of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand etc etc who will almost certainly start next weekend !?
the message above was done by me tom
ha ha im first
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