Likely to be on limited mins with the AWs. Niche Cache.
Ryan Thomas:
“It could be better. I only trained a little this week and my energy ran out quickly. I felt my hamstring squeeze in the last minutes before halftime and in the second half. I couldn't go any more. It’s a shame because I want to play as much as possible.”
That was what Thomas said after being substituted an hour into a massive victory for PEC Zwolle,
beating NAC Breda 2-1 to move ten points clear of relegation with six matches left. It was the
third time in the past four fixtures that Thomas has been subbed early, having skipped the match before this streak entirely.
As has been said in previous weeks, it’s nothing serious but he is feeling the weight of having played a lot of minutes this season and those hamstrings are getting rather tight. There might be more space for him to rest up following this result... but not quite yet. Because despite everything he’s still travelled to join the All Whites back in Auckland. That’s a 24-hour travel shift each way with two games in between.
The reason for that is twofold: the first thing is that he’s desperate to play at the World Cup and wants to show his commitment, especially after being away from the international scene for so long... and the other reason is that his sister is getting married this weekend. They’d set that date 18 months ago, deliberately picking an international window when he’d be able to be there, not even knowing that he’d be back in the All Whites with home games conveniently planned for that spot on the calendar. The plan is that he’ll start on Friday against Finland, head to Te Puke on Saturday for the nuptials, then probably sit on the bench on Monday against Chile. The minutes will be subject to change depending on how he pulls up – Darren Bazeley’s always careful with these things.
