Savage Would Play Again for Wales

Days after announcing his retirement from the international arena, Blackburn Rovers midfielder Robbie Savage says he would play for Wales again but only if John Toshack was not in charge.

Savage, 30, was left out of Toshack’s squad to face Austria in their World Cup Qualifying double header later this month, and immediately decided to quit the international game to concentrate on his club and family.

Speaking on BBC Wales Midweek Sports programme this week Savage said: "My biggest regret is not being able to ever play for Wales again while John Toshack is in charge,"

"It's completely outrageous what he's done, it goes beyond football matters." Toshack says that he left Savage out of the squad for the matches on 26 and 30 March because he wants to look at other options, as he begins the task of rebuilding Wales for the future.

Despite this, Savage maintains he was left out because he was critical of the appointment of Toshack as new Wales manager and not because he felt Savage should be left out of the squad because of footballing reasons.

Savage was named in Toshack’s first Wales squad but withdrew injured as the side went on to defeatHungary 2-0 in a friendly last month, with Carl Robinson and Carl Fletcher impressive together in central midfield, a partnership Toshack wants to see more of against competitive opposition.

"He called me up on Monday morning and said he was keeping the same squad as the last game," Savage added.

"I was in that squad along with Ryan Giggs and John Hartson, who also pulled out through injury, but he decided to include them and leave me out.

"I can appreciate if I'm not in the starting XI - I'll work as hard as anybody to get in the team - and if I was on the bench I'd be part of the (match day) 18.

"But not to get in the squad of 24 was a statement of his intent to get rid of me.

"No disrespect to anyone, but there's some players (in the Wales squad) who can't get in their teams in the lower leagues, while I'm a Premiership player playing week-in, week-out."

Savage has gone on to say his fall-out is similar to that of Roy Keane who criticised Mick McCarthy’s preparations for the World Cup in 2002 and also believes that there are others in Toshack’s squad who are unhappy with the manager’s methods with reference to training and meals.

"We had fried bananas to start the meals, which no-one's ever heard of. There were no carbohydrates before the game," Savage said.

"The training methods were embarrassing - I think he's totally lost touch with the times.

"Most of the lads agreed with me and I was the spokesperson, I stuck up for the lads but it backfired."

Wrexham-born Savage made 39 caps for Wales before choosing to retire from the international scene and has made 240 appearances in the Premiership for Leicester City, Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers.