Originally posted by moomba
His injury record in the week prior to the majority of Australian friendlies.
His "I'll play for Australia so long as it is in a meaningful match" comments.
Need I go on?
Moomba
We all know that the picking and choosing of which games to come back and play in started with the laughable way Soccer Australia handled the national team's schedule in 1999 and turned the Socceroos into a circus.
In 5 pathetic months there was the ridiculous "FIFA All Stars" debacle - which Harry turned up for and copped a career-threatening injury for in the process... Then there was the Manchester United shambles where Simon Colosimo's knee exploded thanks to Andy Cole... then finally there was the shameful Brazil episode where the samba boys sent their kids and the whole series was relegated to B-international status, Ned Zelic walked out of the team vowing never to return, and Kewell rightly refused to return and play in it.
Needless to say because of these three ridiculous episodes, many national team members were embarrassed and refused to play in such poorly planned fiascos in which the players and team were treated as meat by their federation and channel 7.
In regards to Kewell's willingness to play for Australia on other occasions... Is that why he answered Eddie Thompson's call to make his debut for Australia in Chile (24/06/96) of all places as a leftback when England were sniffing around him?
(12/06/99) Is that why he played in the aforementioned debacle known as the FIFA World XI... I mean FIFA World Stars... I mean FIFA All-Stars match in Sydney when he was axed down from behind by Rigobert Song and that's when all his achilles tendon trouble started? Was that a meaningful game?
Is that why he limped around for a half before being substituted vs Hungary (23/02/00) because he wanted to prove the doubters wrong despite coming into the game with more achilles trouble?
He has had genuine injury trouble - most notably his achilles tendon which almost ended his career - yet he still shows up more often than not to play for Australia, whether the games are competitive, friendlies or exhibitions and had represented Oz at U17 (1995) and U20 (1997) level before becoming and while a full Socceroo.
So to cut a long story short, yes I think you should go on, because all you've spouted so far is the same ill-informed garbage that the mainstream media used against him before they did a sickening about-face and he became their darling.
Please do...