Speaking on the Wrighty’s House Podcast, Ian Wright has been discussing the mentality of some players before the World Cup.
Football’s greatest and most prestigious tournament starts next week, but, as strange as it is, before we get into World Cup mode there’s one more round of Premier League fixtures to play.
This weekend is bound to be a weird one as players may focus more on not getting injured rather than securing a victory this weekend, and Wright feels that some players may be pulling out of certain games in order to protect themselves.
Wright pinpointed Tottenham’s Cristian Romero as one player he believes is milking his fitness problems right now in order to save himself for the World Cup.
Romero’s fitness issues
Wright says that he’d probably skive the final games before the World Cup if he was playing now, pointing towards Romero as an example.
“For me, now it’s very difficult because they still have to play games. That’s the biggest worry. I don’t know how I’d deal with that, I’d probably just like Romero at Tottenham, he’s jumped on Harry Kane and said ‘I’m fatigued, I’m fatigued as well.’ I would not want to be playing any football before that at a normal World Cup you have a couple of weeks where you’re not doing anything,” Wright said.
Can you blame him?
Whether or not Romero is capable of playing this weekend is something only he will know, but if he is shirking this game, can you really blame him?
The World Cup starts next week. An injury in a relatively unimportant game against Leeds could ruin the one thing he’s been working towards for his entire career – it’s simply not worth it.
Of course, he’s paid massive money to play for Tottenham Hotspur, and he probably should be playing this weekend, but it’s hard to really be annoyed with any player prioritising the World Cup over their club responsibilities right now.
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