Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish defends Ben Foster’s decision to indefinitely withdraw from England duty

Ben Foster of Birmingham City(Getty Images)

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Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has backed goalkeeper Ben Foster’s decision to take a break from international football to fully recover from his relentless injuries.

Foster has decided to withdraw indefinitely from the England side after suffering from back, thigh and thumb troubles, even though he has been at the heart of his club’s starting XI this season.

McLeish has revealed that the decision was a difficult one for Foster and had been on his mind for a long time.

The Scott said: “You’ve got to respect the individual’s decision. I chose to play for my country Scotland whenever they picked me. There was no retirement for me.

“It’s not been an easy decision for Ben because he’s thought about it for a long time.

“He did talk about it a wee while ago and I said, ‘Think long and hard and don’t make any rash decisions’, but it’s obviously still been troubling him.

“I think his body has taken a bit of a pounding over the last two or three years injury-wise.”

McLeish has also come out in defence of the England management, who he says have been supportive of the goalkeeper during his continued injury problems.

He added: “The England doctors, Fabio Capello and Franco Baldini have been excellent when we’ve dealt with them when he’s pulled out of England squads.

“They could easily have said, ‘What’s going on?’, because he’s pulled out the last two or three, but he was genuinely having complaints.

“Some days he wasn’t training here. Also when you go as a number two or three to the international set-up, you’re normally doing a lot of practice shots for the (number one) goalkeeper.

“Again doing a lot of kicking was affecting his back because he already does a lot of kicking for us particularly with the amount of pass-backs he gets!”

Although supporting the ‘keeper’s decision, the Birmingham boss has insisted that he would never put any pressure on Foster to eschew international football.

“I would never ask a player not to play for his country,” he said.

“It’s great for players to get recognition because it means that he’s doing something right and hopefully the team’s benefiting because of that.

“Ben’s made a decision and, whether it’s deemed that he’ll get an opportunity to go back, I don’t know because everybody will have their own opinion about it.”