Canadian head coach Stephen Hart has revealed that defender Kevin McKenna will not be available for next week's friendly against Greece. Though he was named to the roster, McKenna informed Hart about an hour ago that a back injury he picked up in a game is worse than expected, and he'll be unable to take part in the game.
Hart couldn't immediately say who might take McKenna's place at centre-back -- "we're scrambling at the moment" -- though he said there's "a very big possibility" that Toronto FC's Nana Attakora or Adrian Cann could take his place, seeing as how they're already over in Europe for pre-season games with the Reds. (Update: Cann will indeed be the one to take McKenna's place).
This is especially unfortunate for McKenna as he was likely to be wearing the captain's armband in the absence of Paul Stalteri. And McKenna's absence isn't the only question mark surrounding the Canadian roster looking forward.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]When asked about the ongoing absence of Mike Klukowski, Hart said that the fullback has some "personal issues" that are restricting him from traveling away from home for any extended period of time. The coach didn't elaborate on what those issues might be, but we certainly wish Klukowski all the best.
And as for David "Junior" Hoilett... same old story.
"He said, 'give me some time'," said Hart. "I'll keep knocking on the door."
Any chance Junior might come around by the time the Gold Cup arrives?
"I don't think I can answer that. ... He knows exactly how we feel about having him on board. He is the only one that can answer that."
Hart then reiterated his stance that he wants "players who want to play for Canada."
Paul Stalteri, the team's long-time captain, undoubtedly wants to play for Canada. But the fact he isn't seeing minutes with his club team meant that Hart wasn't going to have him aboard for this friendly.
"I told him I wouldn't be bringing him into the game," said Hart. "He understands the situation completely."
With Stalteri not there, I asked Hart who might wear the captain's armband. Hart referred to a "difficult situation" surrounding that decision, and then later went on to reveal that he'd learned of McKenna's injury only an hour before today's media conference call.
So while Hart didn't explicitly say Big Kev was set to wear the armband, I'm going to put two and two together and assume that was probably the case. Who wears it now? Dwayne De Rosario (who's worn it before)?
DeRo may not have even made the roster under Hart's original plan for this game, which was to avoid calling any North American-based players. But he said his "hand was forced" at positions where the team is a bit "lighter"; hence, three domestic-based players (DeRo, Jakovic, Johnson... and possibly four, if Attakora or Cann replace McKenna) got the call.
One more interesting roster note: Hart said Simeon Jackson got the call over Iain Hume because "we felt we need someone in the wide right position". Seems like the Simeon Jackson As Canadian Winger Experiment is still in full effect.
As for the game itself, Hart emphasized (as he did prior to the game against Ukraine) that getting experience and seeing what individual players are capable of is more important than getting a result. This game, he says, was "a good opportunity to mix the squad up" and get experience against a Greek squad that is "of a very different quality" (p.s. by different, he means "better").
When asked about the possibility of another friendly in late March, a Canadian Soccer Association official said "we do have a game that we're looking at in late March", which would be "us against another team in another country".
The other team would be Belarus, and the other country would be Turkey, but the game is "not official yet", and the CSA is still "waiting for sign-off" from all involved parties.
In the meantime, we've got Canada v. Greece on Wednesday, February 9. Kickoff is at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT), live on Sportsnet One (and streaming at www.sportsnet.ca, with a special edition of Soccercentral coming on a half-hour prior to the game).
If you're in the Toronto area, come over to Scallywags and join us for a breakfast Caesar, won't you?