Sol Campbell was due to report for England duty last night despite the virtual certainty that he will have to withdraw from the squad with the calf injury which has reduced his appearances for Tottenham Hotspur this season to 25 minutes.
Nevertheless his arrival will represent an important victory for the national coach Kevin Keegan in the interminable tug-of-war between club and country.
After Tottenham played Leeds United on Saturday their manager George Graham said Campbell would not be joining Keegan's squad. In fact Graham had already pulled the player out within an hour of Keegan announcing the England party last Thursday.
Keegan, however, dug in his heels. "I do want him to report," he said yesterday. "I feel it is my right, as England manager, to have the players report for a big game like this and I think that for George to say Sol Campbell is not reporting is not the right way." Relations between Keegan and Graham clearly became strained. "I said to George that I'd phone the player," Keegan recalled. "He said, `You can't phone my players,' but I said, `I can, I'm not with Newcastle United'."
Keegan won the argument. "I haven't got a problem with George Graham," he said, "and I don't blame him for looking at it from Tottenham's point of view; that's his job. But he must not, in turn, blame me for looking at it from the FA and England's point of view; that's my job."
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