Town skipper Carlos Edwards will be in international action with Trinidad and Tobago at the CONCACAF Gold Cup during the summer. As a result, the 34-year-old, who has previously won 84 caps and scored four international goals, will miss the start of pre-season at Town.
The midfielder was pleased that the Blues’ relegation battle finally came to an end on Saturday and is now looking forward to representing his country at the Gold Cup in the United States in July.
Prior to that, the Soca Warriors take on Romania in Bucharest on June 4th and Estonia in Tallinn on June 7th in preparation for the tournament, where they face Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti, but we understand the Blues midfielder won't take part in the friendlies.
"I’m delighted to have scored to help Ipswich stay up,” Edwards told the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation. "It’s been a long, hard season for us but we came out well and we just want to finish the season and look ahead to next season.
"The next order of business for me is putting on the national shirt again. I’m excited about the next few weeks leading into the Gold Cup. This will be my first Gold Cup appearance and I think it’s an excellent opportunity for us to put ourselves back on the football map."
Trinidad and Tobago start their group games with a match against El Salvador in Harrison, New Jersey on July 8th with Town’s pre-season preparations already having begun in the final week of June.
Their group matches end on July 15th when they come up against Honduras with the tournament running until July 28th, although the Soca Warriors are unlikely to be involved in the latter stages.
As with Tommy Smith and others after previous summers of international action, Edwards is likely to be given a break before rejoining the Town squad for the 2013/14 campaign, which starts on August 4th.
Meanwhile, Burnley manager Sean Dyche says he’ll bring one of two youngsters into his squad for Saturday’s final match of the season against Town at Turf Moor: "We’ll definitely look at some of the younger players — whether they’re on the bench, they’ll be around it somewhere. We’ll look at the group over the next couple of days and decide then.”