Club v Country

Hard to keep him out of the headlines at the moment:

They had hoped to dissuade Robinho from reporting for international duty but relented after agreeing to send their own doctor with him so the injury could be assessed by Brazil's medical staff.

City had hoped Robinho would then fly back with them but have had to relent further, agreeing to him staying with Brazil – although they did not expect him to fly on to Oman for next Tuesday's match.

It is being reported that Mark Hughes is none too happy, believing that his trip would be a similar exercise to that which saw Pablo Zabaleta jet in and straight out of Argentina after being assessed:

"We wanted them [Brazil] to know in no uncertain terms that we felt it was very much a risk if Robi were involved in either of the two games," Hughes said. "He has had one training session in eight to 10 weeks so to think he would be ready for a full international against England, I would suggest that would be foolhardy."

I know this is being talked of as a situation where a wantaway player will openly defy his clubs wishes, thus increasing the chances of him being offloaded, but from this report it suggests a logical reason for him remaining with the Brazil party - and that it is not necessarily with a view to him featuring in either game:

"Whether he'll play this game [against England] or next week we are taking day by day," Rodrigo Piva, the Brazil team spokesman, said. "He'll be assessed again tomorrow [Friday]. We know City want him with them but the situation for us is that we have only three games before the World Cup so we need Robinho here."

The club referred to much of the speculation surrounding Robinho as mischief making, and there is no doubt there plenty of people with a vested interest in what he does. From a playing standpoint it doesn't make sense for the club to sell him on at this stage, with the only reasoning being if his presence is damaging the squad and what Hughes is trying to achieve.

There has been no suggestion of that so far, and Stephen Ireland maintained this week Robinho was happy at the club. It is of course difficult to know what to believe given we are not party to the inner workings of the club.

Perhaps until such a time that Robinho actually comes out and says he wants to leave (instead of it merely being insinuated) then maybe it is a situation where we should be taking things at face value?