Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has been quick to defuse a situation involving star attacker Rafael van der Vaart.
The Dutchman injured his hamstring about two weeks ago and was initially set to miss six weeks with the problem.
On being notified of that diagnosis, Spurs boss Redknapp left van der Vaart out of his Europa League squad as the former Real Madrid was likely to miss most of the group stage matches.
It now appears as though van der Vaart is ok and he made his point clear that he was annoyed at Spurs for not consulting him before making the decision.
However, Redknapp says the club had it in their own interests to drop van der Vaart from the Europa squad as it was clear the player was seriously injured.
"I spoke to the secretary Darren Eales and the first diagnosis on Rafa's hamstring was that he would be out for six weeks - at least," he told Sky Sports News.
"So we thought six weeks down the line, he misses the first four games, and we only have six games, so we thought there was not much point of putting him in. We might as well put in one of the other lads in who can play.
"The game that he would have come back for would have been the game out in Russia and we thought it was bit of a long journey for him.
"We thought we would leave him out and if we get through the qualifying group, he can come back for the next stage - that was the reasoning behind it.
"I wouldn't have slapped Rafa out on that long journey probably anyway; he's a very important player for us.
"That was the only reason behind, he was away in Holland having treatment, I would have sent him a carrier pigeon with a message, but I didn't feel it was that important."
