Stoke City boss says clubs should be compensated for national team injuries
Stoke City manager Tony Pulis says that clubs should be compensated for injuries sustained by players while away on international duty for friendly games.
During England's 2-1 friendly defeat to France on Wednesday 17 November, Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard limped off the Wembley pitch with a hamstring injury that is likely to see him out of action for several weeks.
The Anfield club were furious with the England set-up for keeping their player on the pitch for 85 minutes of the game, despite allegedly having an agreement with Fabio Capello's camp that Gerrard would only play for an hour.
However, England national team coach Capello said that he needed to keep his established players on the pitch as Gareth Barry and Rio Ferdinand had also succumbed to injury.
As a result of Gerrard's injury, Pulis has questioned the point of playing friendly games, and insisted that clubs should be awarded compensation if their players are injured in such games.
He told reporters that: "For full-blooded international games, then there is no problem with sending the players away. If they want to do friendlies they should pay wages and if they come back injured they should look after that. There is nothing better than
playing for your country but that is in proper games not friendly matches and I think it has shown again with the team Capello played.
"He has played a lot of young players and given people a chance but they are like pre-season games. (If the clubs were paid) I think that would see friendly games dramatically subside. What did they get at Wembley last night, 85,000? That is helping to pay
for the stadium as much as anything else in my opinion."
England lost the game after Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena scored before Peter Crouch's late equaliser.
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