Players Retiring from International Football

It's personal choice. If they want to concentrate on their club careers then thats up to them. The amount of abuse they get from all the 'expert' armchair fans for playing for their countries must make all the players reconsider their willingness at times.

By and large we should respect Gerrard's decision and I agree with Hannah'sPet by saying he has 2 season's left I think we should realise that Gerrrard has had a couple of years of injuries, and had he not been injured, I think he could have carried on with England through the qualifiers. His decision is a sensible one to me, he put his health before his career and decide what he could cope with and couldn't cope with and something had to give way.

(23-07-2014 00:54 )William H Bonney Wrote:  Dwight Yorke retired from international football 3 times, including his eventual retirement from all football. Can anyone beat that?

I don't know, but should players who retire from international duty be called upon to reconsider? Jaimie Carragher for example. Also, Paul Scholes said he would have returned, but didn't in the end because he was asked so late.

Not bumping this, but I reckon anyone that was interested has voted by now, so it's probably a good time to wrap it up.

First of all, thanks for voting and for comments.

Clearly, I am in the minority! I guess the idea that country should always come before club is a bit of an antiquated notion. I don't think it is a club-over-country thing, mind you, which is a little bit encouraging.

The big message I took from many of these posts is that our media's build'em-up-to-knock'em-down tendencies have made people a bit more understanding of the player's point-of-view. What used to be considered an honour and a privilege - not to be refused - is now perceived as a risk and an invitation to the worst kind of scrutiny and criticism. In those circumstances, I guess it is understandable for players to have a more prosaic and pragmatic approach to the national team.

Okay then ... so I WON'T 'boo' Steven Gerrard when he comes to Stamford Bridge. Happy!?