International duty

Nine of Nuno’s first-team squad have departed for international duty this week, with the World Cup on the minds of a number of his key players.
Ruben Neves, Romain Saiss and Alfred N’Diaye are all hoping to impress their managers enough to earn a place on the plane for the summer’s showpiece event in Russia.

Neves, who has been capped four times by Portugal, departs for friendlies with Egypt (Friday) and Netherlands (Monday), hoping to impress Fernando Santos.

Saiss proved a key player in Morocco’s successful qualification campaign and he now faces preparation friendlies against Serbia on Friday and Uzbekistan the following Tuesday.

Alfred N’Diaye also takes on Uzbekistan on Friday, as Senegal prepare for Russia. The midfielder will also face Bosnia-Herzegovina the following Tuesday in France.

Last week, Barry Douglas received his maiden Scotland call up following impressive form for Wolves and he’ll be in Alex McLeish’s squad for games against Costa Rica (Friday) and Hungary (Tuesday).

Republic of Ireland missed out on qualification to the World Cup, but Matt Doherty will once again be in the squad as they travel to face Turkey on Friday.

Benik Afobe leaves Wolves in good form to link up with DR Congo and next Tuesday he’ll face Tanzania in a friendly.

Elsewhere, Morgan Gibbs-White will link up with England Under-18s, after winning the World Cup last year, and faces a triple header of friendly matches against Qatar (Wednesday), Argentina (Friday) and Belarus (Monday).

Goalkeeper, Harry Burgoyne also departs Molineux for the week to link up with England Under-21s for a training camp at St George’s Park.

Finally, Ruben Vinagre is the only player in competitive action, as he departs with Portugal’s Under-19s. He faces UEFA Under-19 Championship matches against Kosovo (Wednesday), Slovakia (Saturday) and Republic of Ireland (Tuesday).