Kampl decided to skip the two World Cup 2018 qualifiers, saying that he would rather stay in Leverkusen, where he plays for Bayer. He sent Slovenia’s national coach Srečko Katanec an SMS saying that he wouldn’t play for Slovenia. Katanec then asked Kampl to give him a call, but Kampl never rang him up. “I saw that he played nine matches in the past month. I guess he’s too tired to be able to help us,” said Katanec. Kampl did, in fact, play 7 matches for Leverkusen in the past 21 days.

A number of media outlets have covered the story, and Kampl’s national teammates have also weighed in on the issue: “We believe that playing for your national team is an honour. We try to set an example on the field and off it. Communication plays a vital role in this. We know that Kevin is an invaluable member of our squad, and our team definitely needs him, especially against Slovakia and England. We can’t help but feel that he let us down this time around. Many of us have been exhausted or even injured in the past, but we still decided to play for our national team. It was a matter of honour to us, and we didn’t do it because we were afraid to lose face.”

Slovenia will take on Slovakia in Ljubljana on Saturday. The second match will be played on Tuesday when Katanec’s men square off against England.