Blues boss Mick McCarthy believes central defender Tommy Smith will benefit from playing New Zealand’s two World Cup qualifiers against Fiji later this month as he continues his comeback from his back injury.

The All Whites face the Fijians in Laukota on Saturday 25th March, then in Wellington on the following Tuesday with Blues youngster Monty Patterson, who is currently on loan at Braintree, also in the squad.

Smith, 26, started his first Town game since undergoing surgery in September as the Blues drew 0-0 with Wolves on Tuesday before being replaced in the 61st minute.

“I’m more than happy if Tommy wants to go and play, which he does,” McCarthy said. “I know he stopped for a point but now he’s gone back to playing international football.

“It was the making of me, I loved it, I would never stop anybody going and it’ll do him good if he has a couple of games. He still needs games, he’s not totally ready to be playing at this level yet.”

How did Smith recover from his first hour back in the Championship? “He did OK, for 60 minutes he was fine. There were just a couple of things which went against him.

“Half-time comes and you feel OK, I’ve had it myself as a player and I said to Tom I remember coming back at Celtic after 12 weeks out and I was fine in the first half and I went back out feeling pretty chipper about myself but I was hopeless in the second half, I just couldn’t get myself going.

“It can had an effect that and I just thought Tom found it difficult in the second half, but it’s great to have him back, he’s fit, his back’s OK and the main thing is that he’s injury free and he’ll only get better through training and playing. So if he plays a couple of games for New Zealand that’ll do him good.”

Photo: TWTD

shakytown added 19:39 - Mar 9 He will be lost if they try to pass the bloody ball around. Will probably get injured.
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KiwiBlue2 added 00:11 - Mar 11 The new All Whites coach, Anthony Hudson, is keen on playing an expansive game so lets see how it goes. Tommy is an important figure in the All Whites and it will be great to see him back in action. Hopefully Fiji will help his sharpness and he can again become a first choice player for Ipswich.
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