By Shaun Summerfield
All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen hasn't ruled out a crack at the next Football World Cup.
Just a flying visit for All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen, catching up with sponsors while en route to Blackburn Rovers pre-season tournament in Sydney.
After leading the All Whites in South Africa northern hemisphere commitments have left him following a day behind, missing the team’s welcome home parade.
"It was extremely frustrating, but I only had one day off that I could get down here. I haven't actually told Blackburn I’m here so I could get in trouble if they here this," says Nelsen.
There hasn't been much time for Nelsen to dwell on his team's unbeaten run in South Africa. As soon as the campaign finished he rushed to the United States for the birth of his daughter Charlotte.
But the proud new father is pretty impressed with his lad's efforts.
"We actually took three results from three very good teams, and that's an amazing achievement. There's always people that go ‘why didn't you go for the win?’ But the brutal reality is we're not actually as good as those teams, and we have to make up for it in other ways, and we did," says Nelsen.
Will Nelsen try to match the feats of 36-year-old Simon Elliott at the next World Cup in Brazil?
He says he'd love to be there, but four years is a long time in football.
“I'll be as grey as you by then. We'll just see whatever happens, you've got to build on 2010. You've got to get better. You can't replicate. You can never replicate teams. It's going to be completely different," he says.
Grey or not, few would want anything other than a fighting fit Nelsen leading the troops.
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