Source: Team_Talk
Big Sam 'worried' about int'l stars
Allardyce has seen 10 of his squad jet off to link-up with their respective countries and the Rovers chief is worried.
With the club embroiled in a Premier League relegation battle, he admits he is keeping his fingers crossed that they all return unscathed.
"I think there is always a worry when an international break comes around, certainly at this late stage of the season, because players are starting to begin to feel the effects of a long hard season," admitted the Rovers boss.
"There is very little training happens from our point of view it is more about the recovery of players, more about the diet, the nutrition, the fluids and the massage, rather than it is about the training.
"It is about trying to give the players the fuel and trying to top the tank up so they can go again and again.
"When they travel so far for so long and then play what would be two games Saturday and Wednesday, and then travel all the way back then at the best you get them back fatigued, at the worst you get them back fatigued and injured.
"That for us is obviously a big concern with the squad already without two key players in Brett Emerton and Steven Reid."
One player who has stayed at Blackburn is Benni McCarthy, after he withdrew from South Africa's squad for their matches with Norway and Switzerland.
McCarthy has a hamstring injury and was cleared to link-up with the Bafana Bafana - but he told his country he would not be able to make it.
The World Cup 2010 hosts play Norway in Rustenburg on Saturday and Portugal in Lausanne, Switzerland next Tuesday.
"The player's club Blackburn Rovers found that the hamstring was normal and that the club had no objection for McCarthy to travel," a statement from the country's football association said.
"[South Africa's team doctor] had a telephone discussion with Benni following up on the report received from his club's medical team, but Benni insisted that he feels tremendous pain."
