Alan Shearer calls for some 'loyalty' from Yoane Wissa with AFCON coming up
Newcastle United completed a £55 million deadline day transfer of Yoane Wissa from Brentford, only for the striker to pick up an injury on international duty days later.
These things happen, sure, but Wissa had gone on strike over the summer to force through the move to Newcastle and, as a result, was clearly not fully fit, so playing two international games so close together was a huge risk that ultimately backfired.
Wissa's recovery took a hit recently, pushing back his expected return date, meaning that the 29-year-old still hasn't so much as trained on the grass with his new teammates.
Now, before he's even kicked a ball for Newcastle, fans and pundits are looking ahead a few weeks and thinking about the African Cup of Nations, which would see Wissa jet off to represent DR Congo in that competition after a handful of appearances for the Magpies, at best.
Alan Shearer thinks Yoane Wissa has a big decision to make
There's also the matter of World Cup qualifying play-offs to contend with for DR Congo, which Wissa will be hoping to be part of.
Former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer is seemingly a bit torn on what Wissa should do, telling Betfair (via The Mirror) that Wissa should show Newcastle some loyalty.
"It will be a really difficult decision for Wissa not to go to AFCON because you always want to represent your country.
"But what I would say is, because of him not training or playing during the summer, he could've shown more responsibility in not playing as much as he did in those two games when he went away on international duty and hadn't played at all."
"But it's really tough to say to someone they can't and won't represent their country when it means so much. And we know AFCON is huge and players want to play in that tournament.
"It'll be a tough ask, but I understand that there'll be a lot of people thinking that he's never played for Newcastle and he needs to show some loyalty towards us.
"I get it and understand that point-of-view because Newcastle shelled out a lot of money on him and he hasn't been able to take to the St James' Park turf as yet. It'd be a really tough decision for him and Newcastle. Whether there's a way around it, I'm not so sure."
Thank you, baby Jesus, for Nick Woltemade
We understand what Shearer is saying, and we've got the same splinters as he does sitting on the fence. On the one hand, Wissa fought for this move, so he should be looking to pay the club back.
However, representing your country is a huge honour for players, and at 29, time is running out for Wissa to help DR Congo achieve something great.
We've been lucky that Nick Woltemade has adapted as well as he has, but we can't ride that luck all season and being without our other striker for so long is a huge risk. If Wissa were to 'retire' from international football to avoid being selected and refusing the call-up, then he could 'come out of retirement' in the summer if that's what he wanted to do. Of course, that doesn't help Congo at AFCON, so we don't know if he'd do that.
