Yorke waiting for a call

May 16 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

DWIGHT Yorke headed off into the sun this week with no firm ideas as to where he will be next season but the veteran midfielder has promised Roy Keane he will be waiting by the phone if Sunderland want him to end his career on Wearside.

His contract about to expire, the 36-year-old left the country effectively a free agent on Monday but has not ruled out returning to the Stadium of Light. Although Yorke is set to spend most of his summer relaxing on faraway beaches while Keane heads to New Zealand to study the All Blacks’ training techniques, distance will not be a barrier to him spending his last season as a professional footballer at Sunderland. “If the phone rings and the manager wants to speak to me, he knows where I am,” said Yorke, who his former team-mate has indicated would be welcomed back to the club. “I’ve got to decide in my head if I want to play another year. I feel I can but I’ll think about it and see where we are.

“I’m going on holiday straight away with the family, he (Keane) knows that. I’m going to do my thing. He knows my number, I know the gaffer’s number. I don’t know what my plans are going to be or where I’ll be. He lives in Manchester occasionally, I live in Manchester. I’ve no set plan, I could end up anywhere in the world. He just has to pick up the phone.”

Yorke also has offers from the less rigorous leagues of Australia and the United States. The former European Cup winner has already had a spell in the A-League, with Sydney, before being brought back to England by Keane. Yorke headed Down Under disillusioned with the game after his post-Manchester United career.

“I went through a stage where I wasn’t enjoying football at all,” he admitted. “I could easily have walked away from the game at that particular time. I lost my sister and football wasn’t my priority, I didn’t feel my heart was in football.

“Then I went to the World Cup with Trinidad the spark was back. When I look back my sister would have wanted me to play for as long as I possibly could have.”

Yorke played against Arsenal on the final day of the season, his first start since January. His performance against the Gunners persuaded the 36-year-old he still has a role to play in the Premier League if, as he has hinted, Keane agrees. The Black Cats will travel to the Algarve to play in the Albufeira Cup in pre-season. Sunderland play Super Liga runners-up Sporting on Sunday, July 20 (9pm local time) and Vitoria Setubal on Wednesday, July 23 (in a yet-to-be confirmed evening kick-off), both at the Albufeira Municipal Stadium. The Wearsiders have been regular visitors to the Iberian peninsula for warm-weather training camps.

Meanwhile, Andy Cole is understood to have rejected a pay-as-you-play offer from Burnley. Sunderland have released the striker, who spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Turf Moor.