Kisnorbo risks international future to focus on Hearts

NEIL FORSYTH

WHEN Hearts flew to Vancouver yesterday for a pre-season tour, one member of the party was travel-weary before the plane left the tarmac. Patrick Kisnorbo only returned from his native Australia on Thursday and, back in Edinburgh as he reflected on a summer break that proved to be anything but, could hardly believe that the countdown to the start of the new SPL campaign had already begun in earnest.

"It’s amazing, it only seems like yesterday that I was boarding the plane to go back home at the end of the season," said Kisnorbo. "I’ve just been at the training ground to pick up my gear and now I’ve got tonight to rest up before we catch the flight first thing tomorrow morning."

Kisnorbo had special reasons for feeling jaded. When he flew home at the end of last season, he was travelling straight to a meet-up with the Australian national squad for the first instalment of a simmering club-versus-country clash of loyalties that has left him wondering if he still has a future in international football.

Like Craig Moore at Rangers, Kisnorbo has been torn between representing his country at the Olympic Games in Athens and staying in Scotland and helping his club make the best possible start to the season. Unlike Moore, Kisnorbo has chosen the latter.

He explained: "I arrived in Melbourne at 2.30 in the morning, I was at the Socceroo training camp by 11 that same morning and I was with them for three weeks," he recalled. "After that, I was supposed to have eight days off then go to Switzerland."

The trip to Switzerland was with Australia’s largely under-23 Olympic squad, who were to follow the Swiss training camp with another camp in Bath, a tour of Japan, and a final training camp in Rome. For Kisnorbo and his representatives, it was a bridge too far.

"It’s a huge schedule, but that’s the Australian mentality for you, the Olympic Games is a top priority and the preparation is taken that seriously," said Kisnorbo. "Very few of the under-23 players are playing abroad, let alone playing first-team football at a high level. They can afford to dedicate themselves totally over the next couple of months to doing well in the Olympics and quite rightly too, but for me it’s really hard.

"I hadn’t had a break, and all I wanted was a two-week rest," Kisnorbo continued. "My body needed it, but Frank Farina [Australia’s national team manager] didn’t want to give it to me. He only offered me a week. I love playing for my country but I knew I needed to have a rest. I spoke to the doctors and physios over there, as well as people outside the Australian set-up and everyone agreed with me."

His agent conveyed Kisnorbo’s decision to Farina, and it came as little surprise that he was then omitted from the provisional squad for the Games themselves.

"Yeah, it was as a result [of the call-off], but we expected that", said Kisnorbo. "I’ve not spoken to him [Farina] directly and I know that he’ll be upset and disappointed, but I’ve worked so hard to get a first-team position here at Hearts, and I can’t afford to throw away all that hard work. The gaffer has signed Jamie McAllister from Livingston, who plays in a position I used to play in sometimes, so the pressure’s always there on you to fight for your place.

"After the Olympics I would have had to come back in August to a full season with Hearts," he added. "I simply couldn’t have done that without suffering as a result. At the end of the day, I’m contracted to play for Hearts so I had to make sure I was fit and ready. I’m coming back a week later than everyone else as it is."

What will have especially rankled with Farina was that it was the third time in the space of a year that Kisnorbo had placed Hearts’ needs above those of his country. In December, he turned down the chance to join the Olympic squad for their lengthy qualifying campaign, whilst a last-minute invitation to join the full national team in March was rejected after Hearts’ medical staff ruled out the arduous midweek trip to Venezuela.

"It’s not the first time it’s happened, no", Kisnorbo admitted. "They wanted me to go away for a month in December and there’s just no way I can do that, as a UK-based player. The Venezuela miss was hard for me to take, that was a high-profile game and featured nearly our strongest team. It’s been a tough year on the international front, trying to keep everyone happy, but I think I’ve made the right decisions."

He was less sure when asked if he has an international future. "I’m not too sure, I certainly hope so. It’s not personal from my point of view, so hopefully it isn’t from theirs," was his brief response, before he turned to the forthcoming season.

"Anyway, it’s all about Hearts for me right now," he said. "I’m really going to miss Seve [Scott Severin, who joined Aberdeen] as a player and a friend, he only lives over the road from me, but other than that it’s going to be great to see the boys again tomorrow. We did brilliantly last season and we’ve got to try and maintain that standard, starting with the first game against Dundee."

Taken from the Scotsman