This is George McCartney's wiki entry, there's a rustle of a sick note
in the background.................
George McCartney (born April 29, 1981 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is
an international footballer for Northern Ireland. He currently plays for
Sunderland where he is an attacking left full back. He began his youth
career at Sunderland, and then went to West Ham, and then made a return
to Sunderland at the start of Roy Keane's time at charge. He then fell
out of the first team under Steve Bruce, when he suffered an ankle
injury, and Anton Ferdinand took his place, after being out of favour.
Sunderland
McCartney joined Sunderland as a trainee in 1998 and made his debut
against Luton in the Worthington Cup in 2000. He was made team captain
in 2003/04 after Jason McAteer suffered a long-term injury and in
2004/05 was voted Player of the Season by Sunderland fans during the
successful Championship winning campaign, narrowly beating left sided
partner and fan favourite Julio Arca. During the season his excellent
performances earned him the title "Mr. Consistent" from manager Mick
McCarthy. McCartney missed a large percentage of Sunderland's ill-fated
2005–06 season due to injury. He showed glimpses of his potential once
he had regained his fitness, but his return came far too late in the
season for him to have any meaningful impact on the team's dreadful run
of results. He made 157 appearances for Sunderland in all competitions.
West Ham
On August 8, 2006 McCartney moved to West Ham in a four year deal, in
exchange for Clive Clarke and an additional £500,000. He made his debut
in the team's 2–1 defeat to Chesterfield in the League Cup on October
24, 2006. After initially spending most of his time as substitute, he
eventually became a first team regular under Alan Curbishley and his
strong forward runs played a crucial role in West Ham's eventual escape
from relegation. He went on to make 25 appearances in all competitions
for West Ham during the 2006/07 season. McCartney scored his first goal
for the hammers, a strong back post header, in a friendly against Roma
one week before the start of the 2007/08 season. He scored his first
Premier League goal for West Ham in the 1–1 home draw with Bolton
Wanderers on November 4, 2007 with a magnificent volley. At the end of
the 2007/2008 season McCartney received the runner up Hammer of the Year
Award, having played in all 38 Premiership games.
Return to Sunderland
McCartney rejoined former club Sunderland on September 1, 2008, signing
a five-year contract, for a fee reported to be between £6.5 and 7
million, although it was officially declared as undisclosed.
He is set to join Leeds United on 23rd September 2010 on a one month
loan to help regain match fitness after suffering a knee injury in pre
season and as a result losing his first team place. The move will see
him link up with Northern Ireland assistant manager Glynn Snodin.
International career
McCartney has four caps for the Northern Ireland U-21 team and has made
23 appearances, including two as substitute, for the senior team. He
made his debut for the senior team in September 2001, in their World Cup
qualifying win against Iceland, scoring his only goal in his
professional career before his goal for West Ham in 2007. In 2005, he
fell out with the then manager of the Northern Ireland senior team,
Lawrie Sanchez.
However since Nigel Worthington took charge of the national team George
has stated his willingness to return and on August 22, 2007, McCartney
made his return to international football in the 3–1 win against
Liechtenstein.
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