Portsmouth boss fires clear message over halting Australian internationals after latest injury blow
John Mousinho insisted he has no intention of attempting to convince players to park their international aspirations.
But the Pompey boss acknowledged his club need to ‘improve’ their record of seeing Kusini Yengi return from Australia duty with fitness issues.
Mousinho has forwarded his view intervening with players appearing for their countries is a messy route to travel, as Yengi was sidelined with a hamstring issue turning out for the Socceroos last week.
That follows on from the striker spending three-and-a-half months out after sustaining a knee injury against Bahrain in November, while Yengi also picked up a groin problem after international duty last September.
Fellow Aussie, Alex Robertson, wasn’t involved with his country at Pompey last season, with the Cardiff midfielder still not involved with the Socceroos.
Blues fans have also seen players stay clear of international involvement to focus on club action, particularly in the Premier League era under Harry Redknapp.
Mousinho has no intention of following suit, however, and believes any of Pompey’s Aussie contingent will be handled properly while with Tony Popovic’s squad.
He said: ‘I think it’s messy (trying to stop players playing for their countries) and I think you don’t end up with a positive outcome. You can end up with a row between player, club and country.
‘Players are really proud to go and play for their countries and it works well for the football club, as long as they don’t get injured.
‘We’ve seen that at the football club over the past couple of years, with a lot of the internationals we’ve had that have gone away and come back capped. It’s great, it’s great to have capped players in the squad.
‘It’s obviously good for players to have that exposure and it’s good for the football club - so that’s certainly not anything we’d discourage.
‘They’re not stupid over there (in Australia), they do everything very well physically.
‘It’s a very good league physically the A-League, as we’ve seen from the players coming over.
‘I think the men’s national team certainly take care of their players very well. There’s nothing we need to look at there, it’s just one of those things.
‘Sometimes travel comes into it, sometimes it’s the individual - but it’s something we’d like to improve upon.’
Mousinho explained Pompey’s medical department will continue to look at limiting any impact long-distance travel is having on Yengi’s fitness, or anyone else involved in going away to represent their countries during the international break.
But the head coach underlined such problems are far from particular to his club.
‘With Yengi it’s not worked out how we’d like it’
Mousinho added: ‘There’s nothing you can do about it, unfortunately.
‘Australia’s a long way away and if they aren’t in Australia for a camp or are playing somewhere else, it tends to be in South East Asia somewhere. It’s just one of those things you have to deal with when you have international players.
‘The one thing I would say is, if you look at any top-level side and a lot of Championship sides they do have players from all over the world who travel long distances in international breaks.
‘In the Premier League you get South Americans, Australians, South East Asians. It happens, so we have to find a way to deal with travel and deal with international breaks. Unfortunately with Kas, it’s not worked out quite how we’d like it.’