Not Kewell: Harry called-up for Aussies

Tell me when I can stop holding my breathe.

There are very few things that upset me when it comes to my beloved Liverpool. Losing to Manchester United, losing to Everton, losing to Chelsea, and players being called-up for international duty are four of them. You can imagine how happy I was to hear Jamie Carragher quit England and that poor excuse of a manager in McClaren. It was probably on par with us winning the League Cup.

I groan every time I realize an international weekend is coming up because I know it puts so many of our players at risk while not on-duty for their club. This year has been no different. Torres seems to suffer some kind of affliction every time he goes to play for Spain. What's even more disconcerting is that it usually occurs in training. While Gerrard put rest and recovery from an injury aside to play for the Three Lions not too long ago and he's just now getting back to form.

The king of getting injured while playing for their country though has to be Harry Kewell. The Aussie missed all but 77 minutes last year after sustaining a freak injury in the World Cup that stemmed from blisters getting infected, eventually seething into his bloodstream and leading to a vicious case of tendinitis flaring up in a hairline fracture of his toe.

He then pulled a muscle in his groin playing for his country in the Asia Cup this past summer. Though he thought it wasn't that severe, he appeared to come back too early and re-aggravated the injury in the preseason. Talk about your bad luck.

So you can understand the collective rumblings heard throughout the Liverpool Nation when news of King Harry's call-up for Australia was announced. The thing that bothers me most is that it's for their upcoming friendly with Nigeria in London. I just don't fathom why he is risking injury for a friendly? I would at least have some understanding if it was World Cup qualifying, but it's not.

Furthermore, Kewell's coming to that age where he's going to need to make the difficult decision of club or country. It would seem to make sense for Rafa to ask Harry to quit his country before offering the Australian a new contract. King Harry is 29-years-old and probably doesn't have many more productive years left in him. He'll have even less if he expends his time and energy playing for the Socceroos.