Former Preston North End star Tom Barkhuizen names the only regret from his playing career
Tom Barkhuizen doesn’t hold many regrets in football but this might be one.
Tom Barkhuizen is not a man who lingers on regrets from his playing career.
Even when freely admitting the last four years of his career haven't 'gone the way I would have liked,' the 33-year-old doesn't stay up at night re-writing history or going back over decisions he felt were right when he made them.
Including leaving Preston North End, where he made so many 'fond memories’ and was an integral member of a team that reached the club's highest Championship finish in a decade before and since.
Yet, if there's one thing he looks back on with a hint of regret, it's that he never pushed further to play international football.
Tom Barkhuizen could have played international for South Africa
Barkhuizen qualified to play for South Africa thanks to his grandfather on his dad’s side, and the national team actively pursued him.
Stuart Baxter, who started his playing career at Deepdale and has enjoyed a nomadic career as a manager since - currently managing Swedish side Halmstads BK, aged 73 - was in charge of South Africa for a second time when he came watching Barkhuizen play for North End.
"I met him after one of our home games," Barkhuizen, who is on loan at Bamber Bridge until January, told The Post.
"He'd rang and said 'I'm coming to your game, I want to talk to you about calling you up.'
"It was difficult because it's through my granddad and my granddad's not alive.
"So, it's not as easy as just ringing your grandparents and going: 'Can I have your passport, your documents, because I've got a chance to play for South Africa.'
"He was like: ‘Why don't you come and do a camp even though you can't play? And we'll try and get the documents sorted while you're doing that’. But, again, it was difficult for me at that time."
This was around 2017-2018, ahead of that summer's World Cup in Russia. South Africa didn't make it, finishing bottom of their qualifying group behind Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde.
Yet, having the chance to play internationally is something Barkhuizen does wish he pursued further, but at the time his club career took precedence.
Why Tom Barkhuizen didn't play for South Africa
When asked why he didn't try harder to play for South Africa, Barkhuizen said: "That's probably one of the things I look back on and go I should have pushed more to do that.
"At the time, I was playing every minute of every game, pretty much. I was exhausted. I very much put my club first.
"I think because we were challenging all the time, it was like, do I want to risk going away internationally, coming back, knackered, I've been flying all over the world, and then my performances for the team drop.
"At that point, when you're in your mid 20s, you're still trying to grow your Championship career, you're thinking I've not got enough pedigree where if I come back and suddenly start playing poorly, I'll be replaced and gone.
"So I probably had to put my long-term career, which is in club football, ahead of that.
"I always valued the three, four days you get off in an international break. I loved to just switch off and not think about the game because I valued that time so preciously.
"I had to be fit and ready to play another 20 games because I was playing all the time, and we were playing at a high level. So there were a few different things."
Barkhuizen will use his experience to guide others
With Baxter going to the effort of travelling across the world to watch him play, Barkhuizen is certain he would have earned international caps if he had have got all the documentation sorted, but he didn't.
"I probably didn't show the eagerness to do it," he added.
"Now I'm older, it is something I probably do regret. Especially when you see them at the World Cup. Maybe if I pushed it a little bit harder I could have been there.
"It's not something that keeps me up at night, I think it's more that would have been cool. Maybe I should have done something a little bit more.”
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Now the 33-year-old's career is winding down, he is looking to use his experiences to help players just starting out in their careers, with his decision not to play internationally just one of them.
He said: "It's another life experience to pass on to someone who maybe ends up in the same situation and I can go: 'Listen, this is how you feel now, but maybe you will feel different when you get to your 30s.'
"That's how I see it. It would have been cool to do it and, in hindsight, I probably should have pushed harder, but it doesn't keep me awake at night. It is what it is."