- Ruairi McConville faces Italy in Bergamo for a World Cup play-off place.
- Ben Slimane and Ahmed meet in Toronto just two days before Portsmouth.
- Ten City players are representing their countries across three continents.
Ten Norwich players have departed for international duty this break. At one end of the spectrum is a World Cup play-off semi-final in Bergamo, at the other are some Under-19 elite-round group games at the other.
And at the end of it all is an upcoming headache for Philippe Clement. As he has alluded to, international recognition is all well and good, but not so much when it starts to threaten your Good Friday team selection.
McConville faces the biggest game of the lot
Ruairi McConville, who has been the first-choice right-sided centre-back since Clement’s arrival, is in Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland squad for their World Cup play-off semi-final against Italy in Bergamo on Thursday. If they win that, they face either Wales or Bosnia & Herzegovina (away) for a place in the finals.
Worth noting is that recently, McConville has had fitness issues. He suffered a knee problem following the 3-0 FA Cup defeat to Leeds, and then missed the home league wins over Sheffield United and Preston. But he did return for the two Championship games just before the break.
Hopefully, from a City perspective, he’ll be managed carefully over this break.
Slimane and Ahmed meet in Toronto, two days before Portsmouth
The aforementioned headache involves Anis Ben Slimane and Ali Ahmed. The two face each other when Tunisia play Canada in a friendly in Toronto in the early hours of Wednesday morning (UK time). This is just two days before City play host to Portsmouth on Good Friday.
The turnaround is incredibly tight. Both players are due back at Colney on Thursday, but will at most have only one training session before the game. Their long-haul travel and their limited recovery time will have to be carefully monitored by Team Clement before a decision can be made.
Ahmed also faces Iceland in Toronto before the Tunisia game, while Slimane is due to play against Haiti in the same city. The pair will be clocking up a lot of North American air miles ahead of the Pompey game.
Senior names and young Canaries also involved
Kenny McLean, the half-way line hero from their last camp during which the Scots won World Cup qualification, is, of course, back in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad. They have friendlies against Japan and the Ivory Coast.
Jose Cordoba also has a busy international schedule, with Panama playing South Africa twice in Durban and Cape Town as part of their own World Cup warm-up programme.
Below the senior squads, City also have a healthy representation in the younger age-groups. Kellen Fisher is in the England Under-21s for games against Andorra and Moldova (the latter at Carrow Road), and Eroll Munde-Smith has earned his first call-up to England Under-20s, who travel to Rome to face Italy.
Elliot Myles has been selected for the Wales Under-21 squad, and they have matches against Belarus and Denmark.
From the City academy, both Zach Baumann and Vatan Ozcan are taking part in the UEFA Under-19 EURO elite round, representing Ukraine and Turkey, respectively, with the summer finals for that tournament taking place in Wales.
