Bae Junho has been replaced in the South Korea squad for this month’s under-23s Asian Cup which will also serve as qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.
The 20-year-old playmaker had been named in the initial party ready to compete in Qatar in a tournament that starts this week, meaning he would have missed the final three games of the season at Stoke City, who are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Championship.
Stoke had initially hoped they would be in a position to let him go when they held talks in January but, as reported by StokeonTrentLive last month, South Korea understand the stance of sporting director Jon Walters and head coach Steven Schumacher. Junho has emerged as a key figure in Stoke’s fight to stay up and played a key role even from the bench in a 1-1 draw with rivals Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
Stoke are currently 20th, three points plus four on goal difference ahead of third-bottom Huddersfield Town. There are still eight clubs only separated by six points from Wednesday in second bottom to Millwall in 16th. Stoke take on 18th-placed Plymouth Argyle at home on Saturday with just one point between the two clubs. Then it’s a trip to promotion-chasing Southampton before coming back to the bet365 Stadium for a finale against Bristol City.
Junho joined Stoke from Daejeon Hana Citizen in August, virtually at the end of that South Korea league season. He has then played the full Championship campaign while also featuring for his country in the under-20s World Cup and under-23s East Asian Football Federation Championship.
Schumacher said after Junho’s impressive performance after coming on at half-time at Hillsborough: “We’ve said all along he’s a good footballer with bags of talent. We’ve just felt in the last couple of games he’s looked a bit jaded because of the amount of football that he’s played. We expected a physical type of game, a direct game, which doesn’t suit Junho and the plan was always to get him on for the final 20 minutes or half an hour.
“We decided to make that change at half-time. Haks was feeling his groin a little bit and it was an easy decision to change it. Junho had a good impact on the game but I think all the subs once again did and that’s really pleasing.”
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