Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O’Rourke in Texas, according to an Emerson College e-poll published Wednesday. 

The e-poll, which was conducted from Aug. 22-25 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent, found Cruz with 38 percent of the vote, O’Rourke with 37 percent and 21 percent of respondents undecided. 

According to the poll, the biggest challenge for Cruz in his path to a second term in the U.S. Senate is among independent voters. Cruz had a 57 percent unfavorable and only 25 percent favorable rating within that group, the poll found. 

O’Rourke was the clear choice of younger Texans, with those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 34 favoring the Democratic challenger by nearly 20 percentage points (45 to 28 percent). Cruz, on the other hand, leads among voters ages 55 to 74 by 14 points, 45 to 37 percent. 

Cruz’s lead among those over 75-years-old is even greater, at 39 to 17 percent. 

Cruz has followed President Donald Trump’s playbook and criticized O’Rourke for siding with NFL players who have knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. 

Last week. an NBC News/Marist poll found O’Rourke within four points of Cruz, at 45 percent to 49 percent. 

More: Beto O’Rourke raises $10.4 million against Ted Cruz in Texas’ Senate race

More: NFL players kneeling during national anthem becomes issue in Texas Senate race

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Three or four times a week, Brandi Edralin steps into her 2002 Volvo and drives 25 miles from her home in Highland Park to the federal immigration detention center in Elizabeth.

She gets in line and waits, sometimes up to an hour and a half, to enter a visitors’ room where she’ll meet her husband, Cloyd Edralin, for an hour before he is sent back to his cell.

They talk about their children and their softball games, and about things that need to be done around the house now that Cloyd, 47, isn’t around to do the handiwork. And inevitably, Cloyd — a green card holder whose detention was triggered by an 11-year-old conviction for possessing a pistol that fires plastic pellets — frets about his legal battle to avoid deportation to the Philippines.

“When they hear about immigrants in detention, the assumption is they’re illegal,” said Brandi Edralin, 45, a U.S. citizen. “It’s not a black-and-white situation. The general public’s ignorance is so frustrating to me.”

The Edralins’ new ritual is a byproduct of federal immigration policy under the Trump administration, which has targeted not only undocumented immigrants but also green card holders and other legal immigrants for deportation, often on the basis of decades-old convictions. Now the administration is considering a policy that would broaden the pool of legal residents at risk of deportation by punishing those who have used food stamps, Medicaid, transit subsidies and other forms of “public welfare” to which they are entitled.

The U.S. government issues more than a million new green cards every year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. By some estimates, there are nearly 20 million green card holders in the country, though it is not clear how many of those live in New Jersey. Of the nearly 1.2 million green cards issued in 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, just over 56,000 were issued to New Jersey residents, DHS says.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said the agency does not track how many green card holders are deported, but several stories have surfaced in mediareports of green card holders and undocumented immigrants with long-resolved, often low-level convictions — or no convictions at all — being detained by immigration agents.

“This is shockingly weird for the government to be playing the morality police on things that happened a long time ago,” said the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, which has provided sanctuary to undocumented immigrants targeted by ICE. “It’s clearly not because of the concern for the safety of the public. They’re concerned with racially and ethnically cleansing this country.”

Cloyd Edralin entered the United States on a green card in 1988 and was able to renew it repeatedly, even after his 2007 arrest on drug and firearm possession charges in January 2007. He was convicted of unlawful possession of an airsoft pistol, which fires plastic pellets, and was sentenced to probation, according to New Jersey criminal court records.

Brandi Edralin said her husband completed his sentence and also paid several fines.

Neither had given the incident much thought until he was arrested on June 4 as he was leaving home to go to his new job as a machinist, joining a growing list of legal residents who are being detained by immigration authorities over old criminal convictions.

In late 2016, Isidro Quintana, a Mexican green card holder from Aurora, Colorado, was flagged by immigration authorities while he was traveling because of a 1996 marijuana-related conviction, according to Denverite, a news website. He was detained by ICE after President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

Quintana had other charges, including a 1996 domestic violence conviction. An immigration judge granted him a reprieve from deportation in May 2017. 

A receptionist for Quintana’s attorney, Weldon Caldbeck, confirmed he worked on the case but said he wasn’t available for comment.

In January, a 43-year-old Polish doctor and green card holder, who came to the United States with his family when he was 5, was arrested in Michigan after dropping off his daughter at school. The doctor, Lukasz Niec, had two misdemeanor convictions from 1992, though the arrest was triggered by a child abuse investigation against him.

A federal judge dismissed those allegations in April.

In June, a Mexican green card holder who lives in Los Angeles, Jose Luis Garcia, was detained and placed in deportation proceedings over a 2001 domestic-violence-related misdemeanor. Three weeks after his arrest, Garcia’s deportation case was closed, and he was released.

Carl Shusterman, an immigration attorney based in Los Angeles, said these cases and others suggest that Trump is as interested in restricting legal immigration as he is in addressing the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

“The thing he [Trump] is really devoting his attention to is cutting legal immigration,” he said. “You could probably ask any attorney in the country and they will tell you the same story.”

‘A chance before the judge’

Edralin had several people submit affidavits vouching for him in his deportation case, including Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, a county law enforcement official, and some of Edralin’s relatives.

Family members say the judge did not read the packet because she didn’t have time. Instead, she denied Edralin’s request to be released on bond because his 11-year-old conviction made him a threat to the public.

“We were stunned that she just said, ‘No, no bond; he’s a danger to society,’ 11 years after the crime and not looking at anything current,” Brandi Edralin said.

Edralin’s case signals a shift in immigration enforcement under Trump, whose predecessors exercised more restraint by prioritizing for deportation undocumented immigrants who had been convicted of serious crimes or were deemed to pose a national security threat. But penalties for green card holders with criminal records didn’t start with Trump. They date as far back as the late 1980s.

Shusterman, who worked for the federal government in the late 1970s and 1980s, said immigration agencies started examining green card holders’ records more closely after a 1988 law introduced the idea of “aggravated felonies.”

At first, they included serious crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and the illegal trafficking of firearms and destructive devices.

Immigration laws passed in 1990 and 1996, however, expanded the definition to include crimes that immigration attorneys say are neither “aggravated” nor “felonies.” 

Immigration officials “are saying if you committed an aggravated felony sometime that you can never show good moral character for immigration benefits for the rest of your life,” Shusterman said.

“Things have gotten so much tougher,” he added. 

It’s unclear whether Edralin’s conviction would be considered an “aggravated felony” or a less severe category known as a “crime or moral turpitude,” but it wasn’t until he was arrestedthat he realized he was a target for deportation.

Joanne Gottesman, a professor at Rutgers Law School, said the laws on the books aren’t any different from under previous administrations, but the enforcement strategy is new.

“I think that the difference with prior administrations is there was a use of discretion in certain circumstances that isn’t being applied today,” said Gottesman, who runs the Immigrant Justice Clinic at Rutgers.

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Someone who is facing deportation over an old conviction, even for an aggravated felony, “doesn’t get a chance to go before the judge and say: Let me tell you the ways that I have been rehabilitated, the deep ties I’ve had in the United States,” Gottesman said. “What the statute does is prevent the judge from hearing anything the person has to say.”

Edralin’s arrest added a layer of complication for his family’s finances. Brandi Edralin, who works full time, said she has covered most of her husband’s legal costs, but those fees and the daily household expenses have drained their savings.

“The big thing about him being there — I’ve come to terms with that. We’ll deal with it,” she said. “But then the lawn mower broke. He would normally be the one to fix that. … It’s the things you don’t think about that you deal with from day to day.”

Chariza Edralin, Cloyd Edralin’s younger sister, started a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the family’s legal fees and daily household expenses. The family is also hosting a fundraiser on at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park.

“The family support keeps me going, the community and friends,” Chariza Edralin said. “We are very, very fortunate to have really close-knit friends and family who are very supportive.”

In the meantime, family members and friends continue to visit Edralin nearly every day at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility.

Edralin tells his wife and his sister about life in the detention center. He gets cold, so he used money that Brandi deposited in his account to buy a sweatshirt and an extra shirt from the commissary to keep warm. 

Some of the inmates he meets don’t have anyone to visit them, send them money or represent them in immigration court. At his request, Brandi said, she put money in a few of the other inmates’ commissary accounts.

Chariza Edralin, who visits her brother at least once a week, has heard the stories about the other inmates. She says she makes an effort to be upbeat, though at some point they reflect on the birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones he’s missing.

“I’m trying to be positive and optimistic about this whole thing,” she said, “but just considering the fact that in America, this country is basically all about immigrants, and how we’re treating a certain type of immigrants and a collection of immigrants right now, it’s embarrassing.”

Steph Solis: @stephmsolis; 732-403-0074; ssolis@gannett.com

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It’s clear that Roseanne Barr will not be a part of the “Roseanne” spinoff, but a huge mystery surrounds how the show’s matriarch will be written off the show — until now.

John Goodman, who plays Dan Conner, offered some insight on the fate of his onscreen wife, played by Barr. In a profile published on U.K.’s Times Sunday, Goodman said his character will be “mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”

ABC announced the network would move forward with an unlikely spinoff, “The Conners,” after Barr’s namesake show was abruptly cancelled following her racist tweet to former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett in May.

ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey called the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

Barr said her controversial tweet was misinterpreted and that she is not a racist, and Goodman agreed. “I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist,” he told the Times Sunday.

Goodman admitted he was “brokenhearted” and “surprised” at the show’s cancellation, before dialing it back: “That’s probably all I should say about it.”

“Roseanne” returned to ABC in March, two decades after it ended its first run from 1988 to 1997. The original cast, including Barr, Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert, returned.  

Nielsen data for the full 2017-18 TV season, out in June, showed that “Roseanne” was the No. 1 series, with a final average of 20 million viewers. But the revival’s nine-episode first season was also its last.

In order for “The Conners” to get the green light from ABC, Barr had to sign over all her rights to the show, effectively ending her prime-time career.

“I sent her an email and thanked her for that,” Goodman said. “I did not hear anything back, but she was going through hell at the time. And she’s still going through hell.”

Aside from the email exchange, Goodman said he hasn’t had further contact with Barr since “Roseanne” got the axe, referring to her only as a former “work friend.”

The 10-episode spinoff will premiere this fall, in the same Tuesday at 8 EDT/PDT time slot that was the planned home for Season 2 of “Roseanne.”

Dungey told USA TODAY that “The Conners” spinoff came together smoothly: “The actors were excited to be back,” she said, adding that “Roseanne” writers and crew members remained largely intact. 

On Roseanne Conner’s fate on the show, the ABC Entertainment President is pleading the fifth: “We’ve taken a little page out of the Shonda and Marvel universes and are not talking about it. You’ll just have to tune in on (Oct.) 16th.”

Contributing: Bill Keveney and Gary Levin

 

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Authorities in Jacksonville, Florida, and the FBI continued to investigate Monday why a Madden video game tournament exploded in violence Sunday afternoon, leaving three people dead, including the gunman.

Here is what we know so far:

What happened?

Gunfire erupted Sunday afternoon in the back bar of the Chicago Pizza and Sports Grille, where a Madden NFL 19 video gaming tournament was being held. A couple dozen gamers sit in chairs in front of monitors with headsets in the room, called the GLHF Game Bar. The restaurant and bar are located at an entertainment complex called Jacksonville Landing in the city’s waterfront. Authorities say the suspect took his own life after killing two gamers and wounding 10 other people. Another person sustained an injury that was not due to a gunshot.

Who was the gunman?

Authorities believe David Katz, 24, of Baltimore was attending the tournament and carried out the attack. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the suspect brought in two handguns and extra ammunition, but likely fired only one weapon. Investigators said the guns were purchased legally in Maryland, Katz’s home state. They believe Katz did not plan the attack before Sunday and that he was acting alone. The Associated Press reported Katz was twice hospitalized for mental illness as a teenager. 

EA Sports, maker of the Madden games, lists a David Katz as a 2017 championship winner. Portions of the shooting were captured on an online stream of the event that was posted to the website Twitch. 

What was the motive?

Police have not yet established a motive, but Williams said the shooter targeted other gamers and that surveillance video shows him walking past restaurant patrons before starting his rampage. Some witnesses told local media that Katz erupted in anger after losing an intense game at the event. One of the wounded, Alex Madunic, told CNN that Katz had lost to Eli Clayton.

Who are the victims?

On Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office identified the fatal shooting victims as Clayton, 22, of Woodland Hills, California, and Taylor Robertson, 27, of Ballard, West Virginia. They were both high-level gamers.

Clayton’s family made a statement that said in part, “We’re devastated by this senseless act of gun violence. Every person who has been in this position has said that they never thought this would happen to their family. We are no different.”

How are the injured?

Nine of the injured were taken to hospitals, seven with gunshot wounds; two others sought hospital care on their own, officials said. University of Florida Health Jacksonville, a level-one trauma center that treated six of the wounded, said Monday that four had been released and two remained, one in good condition and the other in serious condition. At Memorial Hospital, officials said three of the four shooting victims admitted Sunday were still hospitalized and are in good condition; a fourth was treated and released.

More:: Gunman’s motive probed; gamers call for more security at events

More: FBI, ATF search Baltimore home in connection with Jacksonville shooting

More: 6 months after Parkland, another rampage in Florida

More:Shooting witness: Gunman ‘was just in rampage mode’ inside pizza restaurant

Contributing: The Associated Press

 

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Rose McGowan, the #MeToo ally to Asia Argento, is taking the side of Argento accuser Jimmy Bennett. The activist issued a statement Monday urging the Italian actress to “do the right thing” by being honest about whether she had sex with the actor when he was underage.

McGowan also declared Rain Dove, whom she’s dating, was the unnamed Argento friend whose published text-message exchange shows that Argento admitted to sleeping with Bennett when he was 17. McGowan said Rain Dove planned to turn over the texts to police.

“I responded with ‘You have to. You must.’ I wasted no time. It wasn’t hard to say or support. What was hard was the shell shock of the realization that everything the MeToo movement stood for was about to be in jeopardy,” McGowan said in a statement, issued Monday by her spokesman, Nathaniel Baruch.

“An hour after our conversation was finished Rain Dove confirmed that they had turned over the texts and were in conversation with officers. Almost 48 hours later the texts were in the press,” McGowan said. 

It was not clear to which police agency, if any, they were sent. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has said it is investigating whether a sex-crime was committed during an alleged encounter between Argento and Bennett in a Marina del Rey hotel room in 2013. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said Monday her agency has not received any text messages.  

McGowan’s lengthy statement is another head-spinning development in the scandal involving Argento, an early accuser of shamed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. In an ironic twist, she now finds herself accused by ex-child actor Bennett of sexually assaulting him when he was 17 and she was 37.  (The two met in 2004 when he was cast at age 7 in a movie she co-wrote, directed and starred in.) 

On Tuesday, Argento strongly denied the charges, saying Bennett tried to extort her and that her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, arranged to pay him $380,000.  Bourdain killed himself in June.

But on Wednesday, a picture of her and Bennett in bed in 2013 was published, along with screen grabs of text messages allegedly sent between her and an unnamed friend in which she admits she had sex with Bennett. 

Also on Wednesday, Bennett issued a statement insisting the sexual encounter did happen, but said he was too traumatized to report it at the time, and that he decided to sue Argento for compensation in late 2017 after she accused Weinstein of rape and became a #MeToo global leader as a result.

McGowan and  Argento are key voices of the #MeToo movement. McGowan’s initial response to Bennett’s accusations, published in the New York Times on Aug. 19, was to tweet her shock and hope that people would be “gentle” with Argento.

But her latest statement reflects a sharper, more considered response. 

 “It’s sad to lose a friend connection, but what’s even more sad is what happened to Jimmy Bennett,” McGowan said. “Whether or not the extortion case is true – it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right….There absolutely should be no leeway or tolerance for sexual assault. Hard stop. NONE.”

She said she hadn’t released a more complete statement until now because she was “extremely humbled by this event. I had to take a step back and realize that in my own activism while I fight hard with passion – I need to evolve.”

She acknowledged her anger over what she says Weinstein did to her, and as a victim felt she was justified in her fiery feelings. But even the accused have families who love them, she said.

“As allies to the victim and voyeurs of an event, we should find a better way to balance support of the victim with due process for the accused,” she said. “I’ve never claimed to be perfect. This week especially has made me come to terms with the fact that we all have a lot of growing to do, including myself.”

She concluded with a call for supporting more justice and more honesty, and appealed directly to Argento. 

“Asia, you were my friend. I loved you. You’ve spent and risked a lot to stand with the MeToo movement. I really hope you find your way through this process to rehabilitation and betterment. Anyone can be be better – I hope you can be, too.

“Do the right thing. Be honest. Be fair. Let justice stay its course. Be the person you wish Harvey could have been.”

Baruch said the last thing McGowan texted him on Monday was this: “I believe in justice for all.” She subsequently tweeted it. 

Calls to lawyers for Argento, Bennett, Weinstein and Bourdain’s estate were not immediately returned. 

In the wake of the scandal, Argento has been criticized on social media and has suffered career consequences: She backed out of  curating a Dutch music festival, and on Monday Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported that she’s been fired as a judge on the rest of the season of reality competition series “X Factor Italy.”

But Argento has defenders. Over the weekend, Lysette Anthony, another accuser of Weinstein, stood up for her in an interview with London’s Sunday Times.

“I cannot stand by while Asia Argento is hurled under a bus,” Anthony said. “She has been extraordinarily courageous standing up to Weinstein. And now she’s being punished…She’s being vilified and abused.

“When Asia told her story it was absolutely akin to mine and I cannot in good conscience let her carry the burden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Burmese pythons invaded South Florida nearly 40 years ago, devouring local animals and slithering through the Everglades.

But a new study suggests at least some of those Burmese pythons are partly Indian pythons, indicating a giant snake hybrid that could spread farther than either species alone. 

For the study, published this month in the journal Ecology and Evolution, wildlife researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey examined the tail tissue from about 400 Burmese pythons across South Florida. At least 13 of those snakes showed genetic signs of Indian pythons, according to a USGS statement.

Interbreeding may have resulted in what is known genetically as “hybrid vigor,” offspring with the best traits of both species. Breeding between Burmese pythons, which prefer wetlands, and Indian pythons, which favor higher ground, could result in snakes able to spread beyond the marshy terrain of South Florida, lead author Margaret Hunter said. 

► July 29: 14-foot python escaping California wildfire gets loose on the streets
► June 16: 23-foot-long python swallows Indonesian woman
► April 15: Python trackers find record breeding group in Florida

“Hybrid vigor can potentially lead to a better ability to adapt to environmental stressors and changes,” Hunter, a research geneticist with the USGS, said in the statement. “In an invasive population like the Burmese pythons in South Florida, this could result in a broader or more rapid distribution.”

The study’s authors believe any interbreeding probably occurred before pythons became fixtures in South Florida in the 1980s.

Since their arrival, pythons have sparked steep declines in small-mammal populations across South Florida. Knowing more about the snakes’ genetics can help researchers “better understand these invasive predators’ capacity to adapt to new environments,”said Kristen Hart, a research ecologist on the study.

Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner

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In June 2017, Gareth Southgate’s England squad arrived at St George’s Park expecting the usual whiteboards and warm-ups for forthcoming matches against Scotland and France.

Instead they were met by a Royal Marine, who announced a change of plan.

The squad were whisked to the Commando Training Centre in rural Devon, given camouflage kit instead of tracksuits and plunged into a lost weekend of mud, shouting and camping.

It scratched a particular itch for English football.

Since the days of John Beck and Dave Bassett putting their Cambridge and Wimbledon squads through pre-season at the barracks, a shot of stripped-down old-school army discipline has bonded and honed players.

Son Heung-min’s time in khaki could be much longer and lonelier.

Tottenham’s South Korean international is yet to carry out the two-year mandatory military service expected of his countrymen.

He could earn an exemption.

He is currently in Indonesia at the Asian Games chasing a gold medal that, along with an Olympic podium finish, is the only automatic way for a South Korean footballer to be excused.

A semi-final against Syria or Vietnam and a final against either Japan or the winner of the last-eight tie between United Arab Emirates and North Korea separate him from the pass to an uninterrupted career.

Defeat in either though and the consequences are stark and fairly immediate.

Now 26, he could expect the sort of call-up that comes with a clipper cut in the next 18 months.

Five weeks of basic training, covering military drill and combat essentials, would follow.

Previous recruits report then spending their days guarding remote, freezing mountain outposts looking out over North Korea – the rogue neighbour with whom South Korea is still technically at war with 65 years after fighting halted– and their nights in giant 40-bed dormitories.

You might presume that, in reality, things will be different. That an accommodation will be found and wheels will be greased to keep Son aboard the Premier League juggernaut.

But that is far from certain.

“The higher the profile, the more difficult it is to get out of these things,” says James Hoare, Associate Fellow at Chatham House and an expert on the Korean peninsula.

“There is no system in the world that doesn’t have loopholes, but it is seen as such an important part of your commitment to the Republic, that trying to get out of it is not seen very positively.

“Service in the military is both an honour and an obligation. It is seen as proving you are a real Korean and that you have the country’s interest at heart even if you have long hair or magic football boots.

“The military is a very powerful organisation and they tend not to favour the rich or influential if they can avoid it.”

The test cases come thick and fast.

In 2012, 26-year-old then-Arsenal striker Park Chu-young used a residency permit he had obtained in Monaco as grounds for a ten-year delay on his duties.

His decision triggered furious criticism back home. He was dropped from the national team, returned to Seoul to apologise and the authorities have since tightened up residency excuses.

In 2010 MC Mong – reality TV star and hip-hop artist – was accused of using a dentist rather than a lawyer to keep himself out of the military.

He was alleged to have had two healthy teeth removed in an attempt to invalidate himself on medical grounds and ended up with a six-month suspended jail term.

Pin-ups from the country’s burgeoning K-Pop music scene regularly disappear from public view to tears from fans.

Psy – of Gangnam Style fame – served twice, after being redrafted for the crime of continuing a sideline pop career during his first spell in the military.

Baek Cha-seung, a baseball pitcher who played for the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres in the mid-2000s, had to renounce his Korean citizenship in favour of an American passport to keep playing.

His attempt to have his South Korean citizenship restored earlier this year was refused by the authorities.

The effect on sportsmen who instead dutifully serve their time can be stark.

In 2015 golfer Bae Sang-moon – a PGA Tour professional ranked in the world’s top 100 – argued that his residency in the United States meant he should be allowed to delay his service until his top-level career was over.

A court in Daegu ruled otherwise and he spent two years as a rifleman in his nation’s army.

“From the day when I was a private second class, a private first class and even the last day of the service, I wanted to be discharged from the military,” he said in September 2017 after finally getting his wish.

“I wanted to play in tournaments, I wanted to sleep at home and I wanted to drive.”

He hoped that his spartan existence, living off wages of around £80 a week, while route marching and lifting weights, might have sharpened his competitive edge.

He came back physically and, he claimed, mentally stronger, but poorer at golf.

He has missed the cut in 11 of his 16 PGA events since 2017.

South Korea’s top footballers have largely been spared through their own success.

Park Ji-Sung, a Champions League winner with Manchester United, was part of the squad that were honoured with a special exemption after reaching the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup.

Newcastle midfielder Ki Sung-yueng was in the bronze-winning London 2012 side that had their military service slashed to just four weeks.

“It’s something we all respect. It’s not fair to say we are famous footballers so we don’t have to do it,” Ki told the Sun in March.

“Sonny and I can’t just be given special treatment because we’re Premier League players.”

Which is perhaps easier to say when you are facing only a fraction of the usual two years confined to barracks.

Son too could have been free of the full obligation.

In 2014, while playing at Bayer Leverkusen, he was selected to play in the Asian Games.

However, with the tournament falling outside Fifa’s official calendar and conflicting with two Champions League games, his German club took up their right to refuse his release.

In Son’s absence, South Korea beat neighbours North Korea to take gold and earn another generation of players a pass from their duties.

Tottenham – who have not commented on the prospect of Son’s military service – have not repeated Leverkusen’s stance.

Off the back of a tiring World Cup campaign, they allowed Son to head to Indonesia in the hope of a successful title defence that would end the uncertainly around a player they bought for about £22m and signed to a new five-year contract in July.

The man himself has been coy on subject.

In an interview with Time magazine before the World Cup in June he replied only that he was not thinking about the possibility of a military exemption, before his agent blocked the line of questioning.

His emotions have spoken loudly though.

Son’s tears in the wake of quarter-final defeat by Honduras at Rio 2016 and a group-stage exit at Russia 2018 have earned him much sympathy in his homeland.

An online petition in which signatories told the president that they would do double the military service if Son could skip it attracted thousands of supporters.

But, without the requisite success on the pitch, excusing Son would be a tricky manoeuvre for the South Korean government to sell domestically.

It has recently clamped down on various ploys to dodge the draft, such as excessive weight gain or getting extravagant tattoos, which carry criminal connotations in Korean society.

And a legitimate way for Son to continue playing football and appease the Defence Ministry does exist.

Two clubs in the domestic K-league, Sangju-Sangmu – which is run by the Korean Army – and Asan Mugunghwa – the Korean National Police team – allow footballers to play out their military service as part of their squads.

To join either however a player has to have been part of another team in the K League during the previous season.

Should Son fail to land the Asian Games title on Saturday, Tottenham will surely be ready to make backchannel representations to keep him in north London.

But, in that situation, no-one can honestly be sure whether Son will be remaining on civvy street and White Hart Lane or heading home and into commission.

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