Dundee boss Alan Kernaghan and AWOL goalkeeper Kelvin Jack yesterday made their peace.
However, the Dark Blues are set to pursue the issue of his missing the weekend defeat by Ross County after returning to Trinidad following the World Cup play-off triumph in Bahrain with FIFA.
They are also likely to insist that in future they handle Jack’s travel arrangements when he is on international duty.
While confirming that Jack had been disciplined, Kernaghan refused to go into detail about the exact circumstances surrounding his opting to go back to the Caribbean while colleagues Russell Latapy, Marvin Andrews and Jason Scotland all left the T&T charter flight when it stopped over in Madrid on Thursday and made their way back to Scotland from there.
The outcome of yesterday’s face-to-face meeting between the pair will—given first choice keeper Derek Soutar is unlikely to play again before Christmas and the fact Jack sent Kernaghan a text message on Thursday evening which left the manager believing he was already back in the UK and would be at Dens the following day—be seen as a climbdown on Dundee’s part.
It is understood, though, that the stance that’s been taken was influenced by Jack telling them that, in giving in to pressure from Trinidad president George Maxwell Richards to return to his homeland, he received assurances that travel arrangements would be made to ensure he was available for Dundee at the weekend—assurances that were not fulfilled.
“It has all been sorted out with Kelvin,” said Kernaghan.
“The slate is clean. We both move on.
“He was put in a bad position and took the wrong option.
“He tried all that he could to get home—but he was let down at the Trinidad end.
“We will be raising the matter with people in Trinidad.
“I think we have to go through the SFA here in order to get all the information we are seeking. Once that is done we may take the matter up with a higher authority, such as FIFA.
“Beyond that, we may go down the Glasgow Rangers route and do Kelvin’s travel arrangements ourselves then send their association the bill.
“When I was with the Republic of Ireland, Manchester United used to send a private jet for Roy Keane and Denis Irwin. I don’t see us doing that but we will do our own research to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“That’s two problems we’ve had—even when he came back for my first game he didn’t get into the country until noon on the day of the match—we don’t want another.”
After bad weather ensured Jack reached Heathrow on Saturday morning, too late to catch a connecting flight to Inverness, Dundee had to field Scott Murray against County with S-form signing Jamie Kelly on the bench.
But Jack will face Brechin at Dens this weekend.
With Soutar expected to be out for a spell he’ll now have the opportunity to re-establish himself as number one with his club, thereby improving his chances of holding off the challenge of Shaka Hislop at international level.
“Derek is going to be examined by a specialist this week,” revealed Kernaghan. “We think he may have nicked a cartilage and if so you are looking at four weeks from the operation before he is back.
“Strangely, it’s not the knee he actually injured against Hamilton but the other one which is the problem.”
Only four of the starting 11 from the weekend trained yesterday. Stephen McNally, Callum Macdonald, Steven Robb, Steven Craig and Simon Lynch are all nursing knocks while Tom McManus and Gavin Swankie were absent through illness.
“It seems to be this way after games with us,” commented Kernaghan.
“We want to get down and do some hard graft, but that’s difficult when you’ve so few players to work with.
“I think it all comes down to a good level of fitness from pre-season that either wasn’t there or seems to have been lost.”
Former Dundee boss Ivano Bonetti is back in the city for a few days.
Despite leaving the club on far from friendly terms, he visited Dens Park yesterday seeking assistance for an on-going court battle he is involved in with former Dark Blues players Marco de Marchi and Patrizio Billio.