Boss Roy Keane says he’s not one of those managers who withdraws players from international squads at the drop of a hat. Keane says he’s pleased to see members of his Town side getting recognition from their countries.
The former Ireland skipper believes it's a positive thing if his squad are receiving calls: "These players always go with my blessing. It’s always a good sign when your players are getting selected at international level.
"I’ve no problem with it. I’ve never tried to encourage or persuade them to stay behind if they have a chance to go and play at international level. I say ‘go for it’. If they’re 100% fit, of course.”
Town withdrew Darren O’Dea (knee) and Tommy Smith (back) from Republic of Ireland and New Zealand duty respectively over the weekend but Keane says this only happens when his players are genuinely injured, something which isn’t always the case elsewhere.
"If you’ve got doubts about certain players in terms of injuries or they’ve been carrying knocks then you’ve got to speak to the player, speak to the medical staff and speak to the medical staff of the international team they play for. I think we’ve been fairly open with that,” he said.
"We see enough managers up and down the country talking about players being injured and they’re fit two days later. A number of managers do that, say players are out for three or four weeks and then they’re fit two days later.
"We don’t go down that road, if the players are fit and available we send them away. Good luck to them.”
Defender Gareth McAuley is currently with the Northern Ireland squad playing Euro 2012 qualifiers against Italy at Windsor Park, Belfast on Friday and the Faroe Islands in Toftir next Tuesday.
Hungarian pair Tamás Priskin and Márton Fülöp are in their national squad for Euro 2012 qualifiers against San Marino in Budapest on Friday and in Helsinki next Tuesday.
Connor Wickham is with the England U19 squad playing European Championships qualifying group games in Belgium. The England youngsters play Albania on Friday, Cyprus two days later and finally hosts Belgium next Wednesday. Wickham, who scored the winning goal in the final of the European U17 Championships last summer, is yet to win a cap at U19 level.
Town academy trio Caolan Lavery, Josh Carson and Rory McKeown are with the Northern Ireland U19 squad for their European Championships qualifying round mini-tournament in Germany. The Northern Irish youngsters take on Switzerland on Friday, then the hosts on Sunday and then finally Andorra on Wednesday.
Jaime Peters has been left out of a Canadian training camp and friendly in Ukraine, while Trinidad and Tobago considered calling up Carlos Edwards for a friendly against Jamaica until it was realised he wouldn’t be available for the Digicel Caribbean Cup later in the year. Coach Russell Latapy only plans to use players available for that tournament in the friendly.