Dwight Yorke has rejected a deal to become Newcastle Jets marquee player, opting to help his country qualify for the 2010 World Cup instead. The Jets offered Yorke a six-month marquee deal but the former Manchester United and current Sunderland star turned down the offer due to clashes in which the Jets play Asian Champions League fixtures at the same time as Trinidad & Tobago are involved in World Cup qualifiers.

"The money was not a problem; it was purely a clash of calendars," said Jets high-performance manager Ian Crook, who carried out the negotiations with Yorke.

"Trinidad have progressed to the final stage of the qualifying for the World Cup.

"The actual dates did not match, but there were three games where travel was a real issue.

"It was a situation where he would be away to Honduras on the Saturday with Trinidad, play, come back to Australia, and then we were away to Japan on the Wednesday for the Asian Champions League.

"Then a case where he is in Trinidad playing against the USA and four days later with us in China.

"He considered doing it, but in the end he decided the sheer amount of travelling would have killed him.

"If Trinidad had been knocked out, he would have been OK.

"I spoke to him this morning and he was pretty straight, to be fair. He told me he could come and do it for the money but did not think he would be doing the club or himself justice."