Kean hails Nelsen commitment

Kean hails Nelsen commitment

Published Feb. 25, 2011 1:17 p.m. ET

Nelsen first learned about the quake in Christchurch at around 2am on Tuesday when he began to receive text messages from friends, and events took a very personal turn for the 33-year-old as his sister Stephanie went into labour before giving birth to baby George. The New Zealand captain did not ask for any time off and will fill his regular spot in central defence for Saturday's Premier League trip to face Aston Villa. Kean said: "I asked Ryan if he wanted to have some time off and get back home but, typical Ryan, he wanted to do his session. It gave him a different focus for a couple of hours and that's what he wanted. Thankfully everything's okay and his sister's well. "If you take the weekend off and you go away then I think the whole thing builds up on top of your shoulders. If he can train and play and then go back home and support his family I think that's as good a way as there can be to really deal with it." Describing the events of Tuesday morning, Nelsen said: "I put CNN on and just saw what was going on. I tried to call my parents but obviously phones were down and mobile phones weren't working. "It was about 6am or 7am when I finally got hold of my parents, which was a big relief when they said they were okay. But then they said my sister had been knocked down. "She was 37 weeks pregnant and she's got brittle bone disease so that was really worrying. She had to get from her house to hospital and the place was in a state of emergency. It was an absolute wreck, all the roads were gone. "My parents didn't know if she'd made it, then she had to go into surgery, so it was a really stressful morning. At training I had a phone by me and I was just waiting for some good news, and when it came it was a huge relief. "From all the carnage and all the havoc it's a really nice glimmer of light to come out of it." With fellow central defender Christopher Samba battling to recover from a virus, Kean was even more grateful for Nelsen's commitment to the cause as Rovers look for a first win in five games. That run began with a fourth-round FA Cup defeat by Villa four weeks ago and has been followed by league losses to Tottenham and Wigan and a draw with Newcastle. There will certainly be no surprises for either team tomorrow as, after being drawn together in both the FA Cup and Carling Cup for the last two seasons, this will be their ninth meeting in 18 months. Rovers, who sit in 11th place but only five points above the bottom three, were without a match last weekend so Kean took his players away for a training break in Dubai, and he is hoping the change of scenery will inspire a change in fortune. He said: "We're conscious we need to put the points on the board. We've met Villa so often and our cup form hasn't been great but we've won the last three league games against them so we're trying to focus on that. "We've not picked up as many points as we'd have wanted of late but we've been playing well, with the exception of the Newcastle game where we weren't ourselves. "We've gone away, we've come back this week, we've had as good a week as we've had on the training ground and hopefully we can get a positive result. We know we've got to get to that magical 40 points as quickly as we can and then use that to kick on." Gael Givet (groin) is fit but Junior Hoilett (hamstring) is doubtful and Phil Jones (knee) definitely still out while January signings Mauro Formica and Ruben Rochina are not yet match fit.

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