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Club halt Thomas' international return <DIV class=KonaBody>
Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
Shavar Thomas - file
The long overdue return of national defender Shavar Thomas to the national side may have to take a while longer.
Twenty-five-year-old Thomas, who last represented the country in November of 2004, was yesterday recalled to the Reggae Boyz squad to play in the first leg of a home and away series against Canada on Monday September 4. He will not take up the offer as his club, Kansas City Wizards, has 'begged' the <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: blue! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: blue 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">Jamaica</SPAN> Football Federation (JFF) not to invite him this time.
In a telephone interview with STAR Sports yesterday, Thomas confirmed that he will not make the trip to <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: blue! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Canada</SPAN>.
"Basically, the club had no problem with me coming to represent the county. It is just the situation that the club is in. We are battling for a play-off position right now and a number of defenders are injured so I think the club called the JFF and begged them not to have me involved this time," Thomas explained.
"We played a game last night (Sunday), we have a game on Wednesday and we go to Los Angeles on Friday for another game, so as you can see it is a crucial time for the club with stretched resources. Because of this, I think all parties have agreed that I will stay here in the US," he added.
While he understands his club's position and their valuation of him, Thomas was a bit disappointed that his return will have to wait another month.
"I really wanted to go because it has been quite a while since I have represented the country, and I was really looking forward to it. Maybe it is just working out that the next time I put on the national colours it is in the return game in front of the home fans so maybe it was meant to be that way," Thomas said looking towards the October 8 return match.
For Thomas, who has represented the country at Under-17, Under-20, which he captained to the 2001 <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink2 onmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,2); style="POSITION: relative; TEXT-DECORATION: underline! important" onclick=adlinkMouseClick(event,this,2); onmouseout=adlinkMouseOut(event,this,2); href="http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20060829/sports/sports1.html#" target=_top><SPAN class=k
Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
Shavar Thomas - file
The long overdue return of national defender Shavar Thomas to the national side may have to take a while longer.
Twenty-five-year-old Thomas, who last represented the country in November of 2004, was yesterday recalled to the Reggae Boyz squad to play in the first leg of a home and away series against Canada on Monday September 4. He will not take up the offer as his club, Kansas City Wizards, has 'begged' the <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: blue! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: blue 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">Jamaica</SPAN> Football Federation (JFF) not to invite him this time.
In a telephone interview with STAR Sports yesterday, Thomas confirmed that he will not make the trip to <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: blue! important; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">Canada</SPAN>.
"Basically, the club had no problem with me coming to represent the county. It is just the situation that the club is in. We are battling for a play-off position right now and a number of defenders are injured so I think the club called the JFF and begged them not to have me involved this time," Thomas explained.
"We played a game last night (Sunday), we have a game on Wednesday and we go to Los Angeles on Friday for another game, so as you can see it is a crucial time for the club with stretched resources. Because of this, I think all parties have agreed that I will stay here in the US," he added.
While he understands his club's position and their valuation of him, Thomas was a bit disappointed that his return will have to wait another month.
"I really wanted to go because it has been quite a while since I have represented the country, and I was really looking forward to it. Maybe it is just working out that the next time I put on the national colours it is in the return game in front of the home fans so maybe it was meant to be that way," Thomas said looking towards the October 8 return match.
For Thomas, who has represented the country at Under-17, Under-20, which he captained to the 2001 <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink2 onmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,2); style="POSITION: relative; TEXT-DECORATION: underline! important" onclick=adlinkMouseClick(event,this,2); onmouseout=adlinkMouseOut(event,this,2); href="http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20060829/sports/sports1.html#" target=_top><SPAN class=k
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