Ionut Radu rejects suggestions that he is not committed to Romania

“I accept sporting criticism, but not unfounded insinuations,” Ionut Radu says. The goalkeeper argues that respect for Romania’s national team is not demonstrated through statements intended to convince others, or by putting a player’s health at risk. To underline his commitment, he recalls playing in the World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final while taking “the risk of aggravating the injury I had in my calf.”

His comments accompany his explanation for missing Romania’s camp for the Nations League matches. On Tuesday, the Celta goalkeeper said he had decided to stay in Vigo because of right-shoulder discomfort that has troubled him for several months. He describes the decision as a medical one, not a sign that he is turning his back on the national team.

In a letter published on his social media, Radu outlines how the problem has affected him. “It has forced me to play by resorting to temporary solutions for the pain, amid the demands of a very congested schedule,” he says. He adds that he has been unable to follow a normal training plan and that relying on measures to ease the pain cannot continue indefinitely. “I need to stop and undergo specific treatment,” he writes, rejecting the suggestion that his absence is unjustified or an attempt to avoid the national team.

The goalkeeper also says he wants to clear up questions about his “commitment” to the side led by Gheorghe “Gica” Hagi. Radu says Hagi and the national-team doctors were informed about the treatment plan by Juan José García Cota, the club’s head of medical services.

He also regrets that various stories about him have circulated in recent years, including the claim that he is “an unsuitable person in the national-team dressing room”. Against those accounts, he points to the actions he describes himself: playing in the semi-final despite the risk to his calf, and now stepping away to treat his shoulder. His message draws a distinction between sporting criticism, which he says he accepts, and doubts about his relationship with the national team, which he rejects.