Sometimes, professional footballers have got more than football on their minds. Of the 530 or so players who next Saturday play in 22 European World Cup qualifiers from Heraklion in Crete through to Toftir in the Faroe Isles, passing via Lansdowne Road of course, none will be under more emotional and psychological pressure than talented defender Kakha Kaladze, of AC Milan and Georgia.

Kaladze is due to line out for Georgia against Italy in a Group 8 game in Tiblissi. Given the events of the last week, however, it is doubtful whether Kaladze will be mentally ready.

Last Wednesday, Kaladze's 21-year-old brother Levan was kidnapped outside a hospital in the Georgian capital, Tiblissi. The footballer's younger brother had just finished a medical examination for his suspect heart condition and was walking away from the hospital when he was stopped by three men.

Perhaps mistaking the men for police engaged in the routine business of checking documents, Levan Kaladze stopped to get out his identification. Before he could produce his papers, however, he was brusquely and swiftly bundled into a nearby car which then made off at high speed.

Later that evening, an anonymous caller rang the Kaladze family apartment in Tiblissi, first asking to speak to Karlo Kaladze, father of Kakha and Levan. Karlo Kaladze, however, was not there, having travelled to Milan with a friend to spend a few days with his famous footballing son and to watch last Wednesday night's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Valencia at Milan's San Siro stadium.

Domenica Kaladze, mother of Kakha and Levan, took the call. A male speaker told her that her son Levan had been kidnapped, ordering her to go immediately to a well-known city park and look for a letter that had been left at the foot of a specific monument. Domenica Kaladze did as instructed, finding the letter which contained a ransom demand for $600,000 US dollars.

Having alerted the Georgian police, Domencia Kaladze then tried to get hold of her husband and son in Milan. Her desperate attempts to trace Kakha Kaladze co-incided with the Champions League final. With the San Siro stadium area overloaded, she found it impossible to get through to Kakha's cell-phone.

It was only when Kaladze father and son returned to the footballer's Milan city centre apartment that she finally got through, some time after one o'clock in the morning. Since then, Kakha Kaladze has slept little and badly.

His instinctive reaction was to jump on the first available flight to Tiblissi, accompanying his father home. The Georgian police authorities, however, argued against this, telling the player that it would be better both for his own safety and for that of the rest of his family, were he to remain in Milan.

At first, it was speculated that Levan Kaladze had been kidnapped by Chechen guerrilla fighters, who regularly operate close to Georgia's borders. On Sunday, however, the Georgian Interior Minister Targamadze suggested that this was not the case, indicating that police authorities already knew where Levan was being held. The Minister, however, declined to divulge any further information.

In the meantime, however, life and football continue on for Kakha Kaladze, caught up in a drama of the absurd. Last Sunday night, rather than helping the search for his brother, he was out there doing his stuff in the biggest game of the Italian weekend, the 1-1 draw between league leaders AS Roma and AC Milan at the Olympic Stadium.

In a tense, tough encounter, Kaladze was clearly not at his best, earning himself an unusual if probably unfair sending-off in a game which almost certainly saw Roma wrap up the Italian title in all but mathematical certainty. (With two games to play, Roma now lead Juventus by four points, with Lazio five points away in third. Roma's last two games are away to relegation battlers Napoli and at home to a Parma side already qualfied for the Champions League).

After the match, AC Milan VicePresident Adriano Galliani was asked about Kaladze's sending-off:

"Frankly, Kaladze has got much more serious problems than a bad bit of refereeing. . . .," replied Galliani.

Kaladze would agree.