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Queensland Roar's Tahj Minniecon (second from left) fights for a ball against Central Coast Mariners during their A-League match in Gosford, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. Queensland Roar won 4-3. AAP Image/Aman Sharma
Now far be it for me to go around make wild allegations and expounding conspiracy theories, but don’t you think it’s a remarkable coincidence that Tahj Minniecon has come down with swine flu just when the player is involved in a bitter club–vs-country battle for his services?
It’s like the bad old Leeds United days of Harry Kewell and his litany of “nagging injuries”.
Not suggesting anything untoward, of course, but you would hope that Football Federation Australia is dispatching its own doctor to inspect Minniecon and come up with an independent assessment.
Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg, it should be pointed out, is under no obligation to release Minniecon for the Young Socceroos’ training camp/mini-tournament in Argentina ahead of the World Youth Cup in Egypt, not falling on FIFA-designated international dates, but it is undeniably in his club’s interests not to rock too many boats at the FFA.
The two camps have had a frosty relationship so far – especially over fixture scheduling – and the Minniecon impasse is a problem neither wants while also not being prepared to give an inch either way.
Now swine flu has come to the rescue, simultaneously releasing the pressure for action on both sides. It’s so fantastic a scriptwriter couldn’t have made it up.
But even if he does have H1N1 virus, should Minniecon be compelled to travel to South America? In my view he should.
I’m thinking back to the case of Karmichael Hunt, the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland rugby league star who contracted swine flu in early June and after the obligatory period of quarantine and requisite doses of Tamiflu took the field against the Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium days later.
The Young Socceroos’ tournament starts on July 22, six days away at time of writing, so in essence plenty of time for young Minniecon to serve the 72-hour quarantine, take his Tamiflu and get on the plane to Buenos Aires.
Bleiberg might be correct in asserting he does not have to release Minniecon but morally he should relent. To a man and woman Australian football fans condemned Leeds and other English clubs for not releasing our stars for national duty, and the same should apply to Gold Coast and any other Australian club that tries the same trick.
Every member of the Australian “football family” contributes financially, by way of straight tax, match revenue or registered player levies, to the upkeep and ongoing wellbeing of our national teams.
So we should rightly expect that when a player is called up that he (or she) is not prevented from representing the nation, especially by an Australian coach employed by an Australian club playing in an Australian league.
To stop that player would be, dare I say it, un-Australian.
Now Bleiberg might sound a bit exotic with that thick Israeli accent, and dress like Hannibal Lecter on holiday in Rome, but he’s been resident here for more than two decades.
He owes all of us a whole lot more than he is giving.
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