Emmanuel Adebayor has rescinded his international retirement and will play, if selected, for Togo in their World Cup qualifier against Swaziland. From a purely selfish point of view, it is a chance for another player to suffer an injury whilst not on Arsenal duty.

Adebayor commented:

This is a very important game for the future of football in my country and that’s why I have put aside my concerns.

History shows Adebayor’s chequered international career but in view of his high profile, it is hardly surprising that he is the focal point of any dissension with the Togolese squad. In those circumstances, it is hard to criticise him for making a stand against injustices suffered by colleagues as a result of the corrupt actions of the Football Association.

Adebayor went on:

The problem over the bad treatment of the players and coaches by the federation still persists and as the captain of the team, I won’t turn the blind eye. There is enough time from now until the next phase of the qualifiers for these issues to be addressed so that the future of Togo football can be secured.

Their adventure in Germany was tarnished by very public rows requiring external intervention but FIFA, whilst ready to step in and suspend FAs over political interference, is reticent to become involved in allegations over ill-treatment of players. It is not just a case of applying this to rogue African FAs, the problem has happened elsewhere in the ‘football family’, and involving people who are high placed within FIFA which goes some way to explaining their inaction.

With England taking highest profile of all this afternoon, little surprise that Theo Walcott is garnering some media attention. Claims by Bernd Stock that TW14 is as good as Lionel Messi are somewhat wide of the mark – the Argentinean is more of the finished article – and even Theo is told to ignore media comments, good and bad, for the sake of his mental health. Cappello’s contention that everyone needs to calm down a bit where the player is concerned is correct at every level. The media have been looking for some good news with the national team and they got it in Zagreb. The Italian said:

He is a fantastic player and we are very happy with him. There is big expectation on Walcott – we have to wait for Theo. We have to help him because it’s not possible to play every game like the last one against Croatia.

Damn right, Fabio. The performance was exceptional but with it comes a weight on TW14’s shoulders. If his output this afternoon he will soon be castigated with demands for him to be dropped from Wednesday’s game and returned to the Under-21s, such is the flippancy with which the media cast their attentions.

On the subject of Wednesday, Capello has been the subject of a bizarre outburst by Alexander Hleb, not that this should be any surprise given the specious nature of his excuses for wanting a move to Barcelona. Apparently, Capello is a operating a communist regime by imposing curfews on players and laying down the law where mobile phones and computers are concerned. Whilst Hleb may well be an entirely obedient player and see the benefit of casting aside such distractions whilst training, England players are not necessarily so disciplined. Any team whose goalkeeper is injured using a Playstation handset is testament to that.

Lucas Fabianski is content to wait for his chance behind Manuel Almunia and I suspect that it will not be too long in coming, a season or so at the most. He will miss Tomas Rosicky for some time though as reports this morning suggest that his recovery has been set back due to a bad reaction to injections in his knee, requiring a visit to hospital. All we can do is hope that it is not as serious as being hinted at and the Czech midfielder regains his fitness.

‘til Tomorrow.