Expert issues ‘truly bizarre’ claim after latest twist in Sarr’s Watford stand-off
Watford have been caught up in a “bizarre” situation over Ismaila Sarr’s availability for Senegal.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Sarr has been sidelined since mid-November with a knee ligament injury but was called up by his country for the imminent Africa Cup of Nations.
Senegal later accused the Hornets of blocking the 23-year-old winger from joining up with the squad.
Watford released Sarr on Tuesday (4 January ) in order for him to be assessed by the Senegalese medical team, as per BBC Sport.
Dinnery sided with the 17th-placed Premier League side in the dispute.
“This is a truly bizarre one,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“It isn’t in the nature of Watford to refuse to release anyone because it doesn’t benefit anyone.
“They could have been penalised because you have to release any player who is called up.
“He could have been suspended and there could have been other penalties too. If that was the case, Watford would gain absolutely nothing from this.
“It’s not as if they would refuse to release him and then he would play the next week in the league. Also, all players are assessed independently.
“A lot of the time, people think the clubs are saying this just because they don’t want the player to go.
“But there is no federation that will take a club’s word as gospel. He will be assessed by the federation and they can draw their own conclusions.
“It wasn’t an injury that occurred recently. Watford have been open and transparent about where he is in his recovery.
“He was initially ruled out until the end of January. So I was surprised to see that statement from the Senegal federation.
“There are also several other players they have let go to the Cup of Nations. There’s no wrongdoing on Watford’s behalf. The ramifications are too severe.”
Watford have also refused to release Emmanuel Dennis to Nigeria as the Super Eagles sent in their call-up email after the deadline.
But Imran Louza, Adam Masina and William Troost-Ekong have all travelled to Cameroon for the tournament, which starts on Sunday (9 January).
In other news, Watford make concrete move for Nathaniel Phillips as Liverpool asking price revealed.