Rangers star Scott Arfield appears to have put club form ahead of international duty once again as he’s missing from the Canada squad for three upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.
Arfield switched his allegiance from Scotland to Canada – for whom he qualifies through his father – in 2016 and has since been capped 19 times.
The 32-year-old is one of the highest-profile players eligible to represent the North American nation and he served as captain at the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
He hasn’t played any international football for some time, though, in order to keep himself fresh for club duty.
The midfielder explained in March that he was in constant contact with Canucks manager John Herdman and would reassess his position regularly [Glasgow Times].
However, he hasn’t travelled to Canada for an important block of World Cup qualifiers.
Herdman’s side are due to take on Honduras, the United States and El Salvador over the next week, but Arfield isn’t in the 23-man squad [Canadasoccer.com].
There have been instances of UK clubs refusing en masse to allow players to travel to certain countries so that they avoid having to quarantine upon return.
For example, no UK-based players will play for Nigeria in a World Cup Qualifier in red list country Cape Verde next week, with Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun affected.
However, with Canada on the green list, that wasn’t a factor here, and both David Wotherspoon of St Johnstone and Junior Hoilett of Reading have reported for Canada duty.
It appears that Arfield simply decided that it wasn’t a good time for him to travel thousands of miles to play three matches in quick succession when he could be resting at home in Glasgow.
The former Burnley star has had some injury problems in recent times and has only started three of Rangers’ nine matches so far this season, but this move indicates that he’s hungry to win back a regular starting berth.
Rangers’ second match after the international break will be in the Europa League against Lyon and the French side have signed a World Cup winner ahead of their trip to Ibrox.
