If a European club buy a South American player, they can hardly complain when he goes home to represent his national team.
But Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal's frustration
with the international call-up of his Argentine pair Angel Di Maria and
Marcos Rojo is entirely understandable. "They are coming back with jetlag so I cannot train at once and then I have to wait," the Dutchman said.
But his players are not going to be within 12,000 miles of Argentina.
Di Maria and Rojo make the long trip out to Beijing for Saturday's match against Brazil - a game which is actually in doubt because of smog in the Chinese capital. They then face 15 hours of travel back to Manchester after taking on Hong Kong next Tuesday.
This is the third time in a row that arch-rivals Brazil and Argentina have met thousands of miles from home in the months after a World Cup - in November 2010 they played in Doha and in September 2006 met in London.
Van Gaal will not be the only Premier League manager concerned about the amount of flight time clocked up by his South American stars.
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