Grant McCann makes claim over Hull City player following Huddersfield Town clash | OneFootball

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Football League World

·18 October 2021

Grant McCann makes claim over Hull City player following Huddersfield Town clash

Article image:Grant McCann makes claim over Hull City player following Huddersfield Town clash

Hull City boss Grant McCann has told Hull Live that he is unhappy with the Welsh FA after midfielder Matt Smith returned from international duty unfit to play.

The 21-year-old Manchester City loanee was part of the Wales squad that played two World Cup qualifiers away in the Czech Republic and Estonia.


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However the midfielder didn’t feature in either game and was forced to sit in the stands before making his return to the Tigers before the match against the Terriers on Saturday.

McCann has now claimed that Smith returned to the club unfit and not up to the standards required to play during the match at the weekend, with the Hull boss taking aim at the Welsh FA in the process:

“In the two weeks he’s right down, I’ll give you an example – our players did more in two days than he did in 10 days, two weeks with Wales.

“So we’re disappointed that he’s come back like that, we need to give him a bit more training.”

Smith had been a regular for the Tigers up to this point and will no doubt have been disappointed to have been left out of the squad itself for what was a big game for this Hull side on Saturday.

The youngster will be hoping to be back involved for the club this Wednesday as they play host to Peterborough United at the MKM Stadium.

The Verdict

The loss of Smith was clearly felt by the Tigers during the 2-0 defeat to Huddersfield and the hope will be now that they can get him back to the required fitness to be back involved.

It is certainly bizarre that he returned from international duty in that condition and perhaps some more questions will need to be asked of the Welsh FA as a result of that.

To call up a young player and then not use him at all is frustrating to say the least, so it is pretty unclear as to why his fitness dipped so steeply.

Hull and the Wales national team now have to work together to ensure this type of thing doesn’t happen again in future.

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