Town could be without new signing Jason De Vos when they visit George Burley's Derby County on August 14th. Canada face Guatemala in a World Cup qualifier on August 18th with FIFA rules dictating that clubs should release players to their international sides five days before matches.

The Blues will hope that their good relations with former player and current Canada coach Frank Yallop will allow De Vos to remain with them until after the game at Pride Park.

However, other clubs are likely to be after the same treatment and the Canadians will almost certainly want to have their whole squad together ahead of the match, which is being played in Vancouver.

Town play Cardiff at home on the following Saturday with De Vos certain to be less than 100%having been on a transatlantic flight the previous day.

There are no such problems with Canada's second and third World Cup qualifiers against Honduras at home on September 4th and away in Costa Rica four days later. Those dates fall in designated international weeks.

Canada subsequently face Honduras away and Costa Rica at home on October 9th/10th and 13th, the games again falling within international weeks.

Town could again lose De Vos for the final game of Canada's World Cup semi-final round campaign in Guatemala, which will be played four days after Town's November 13th home game against Leeds.

If they finish in the top two in their group, Canada will go through to the final qualifying stage, made up of one group of six teams.

The first of these games will be on February 9th which may cause De Vos to miss Town's match at home to Sheffield United the previous Saturday.

The following matches on March 26th/27th and March 30th present fewer problems, although the central defender may still be feeling the ill-effects of his flight back to the UK when the Blues face Derby at home on April 2nd.

The group games continue into the summer and on into 2005/06: June 4th/5th, June 8th, August 17th, September 3rd/4th, September 7th, October 8th/9th and October 12th.

The top three teams in the group will automatically qualify for the finals, but the side in fourth will face a play-off with the winners of a knock-out game from the Asian qualifying region.

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