West Ham United midfielder Robert Snodgrass chose to retire from international football after learning he was going to be dropped against San Marino on Sunday, according to the Scottish Sun.
The newspaper claims that the 32-year-old was informed that he wouldn’t be part of the starting line up of a team that featured six changes from the thumping against Russia.
He then withdrew from the squad, citing a calf injury that had flared up and would prevent him from even being a substitute against San Marino.
The Hammers star likely wouldn’t have been selected for next month’s Scotland fixtures against Cyprus and Kazakhstan even if he hadn’t chosen to retire, and so he phoned manager Steve Clarke on Monday night to inform him of his decision.
OPINION
It’s unlikely that there was one overwhelming reason why Snodgrass chose to retire from international football. More reasonable is that there were a number of factors that went into his decision. This report essentially accuses Snodgrass of fabricating an injury because he was so angry about being dropped for the San Marino game. If that’s true then that’s very disappointing behaviour from the veteran midfielder. We’ll probably have to wait until West Ham’s clash with Everton on Saturday to find out the truth of his supposed injury. Clearly he wasn’t likely to be selected for the next month’s fixtures, which will also have factored into his decision if he knew that would be the case, and so he’s taken the decision to step aside and let the next generation come through. You can’t blame him too much for that, and hopefully this is something that will extend his West Ham career.
