All Whites could miss club games after travel chaos
Several European-based All Whites may miss club games this weekend after being stranded in Wellington.
Like everyone else in the capital, the majority of the New Zealand team was unable to leave Wellington on Wednesday as fog blanketed the city and more than 100 flights were cancelled.
Most of the overseas-based All Whites were already on a tight schedule to return home for this weekend’s games and yesterday’s events complicated things further.
The likes of Tommy Smith, Ryan Thomas and Themi Tzimopoulos won’t arrive in Europe until Friday, which means they will miss all their clubs’ trainings and build-up. They will also have much less time to get over the fatigue induced by jet lag.
Smith’s Ipswich Town host Birmingham City on Saturday at 2pm (UK time), while Thomas’ PEC Zwolle side also have a Saturday afternoon home match in the Eredivisie.
Local players were also affected, with midfielder Clayton Lewis set to forgo most of Auckland City’s preparations for the Stirling Sports Premiership grand final against Team Wellington on Sunday.
After things had gone smoothly on the pitch on Tuesday evening — with a comfortable 2-0 win over Fiji — Wednesday was a logistical nightmare for management.
Five players left on early flights — Jai and Dane Ingham, Deklan Wynne, Kip Colvey and Michael Boxall — before all subsequent flights were cancelled from 7am onwards.
Many of the team spent hours at the airport, as flights were shuffled and rebooked during the day, before all flights were officially cancelled just before 5pm.
A contingency plan had already been put in place, and around 24 different flights have had to be rebooked for the squad.
The All Whites management also had to find additional rooms for their players at their central city hotel, which was already struggling to accommodate everyone.
Meanwhile, most of the New Zealand Football staff faced a marathon journey back to their Auckland headquarters.
They left on a chartered bus just after 5pm on Wednesday, stayed overnight in Taupo, then headed on to Auckland yesterday.
Most of the overseas-based All Whites departed Wellington yesterday afternoon, before picking up flights to Europe from Auckland last night.