‘I’ll be watching with my fingers crossed’ - Hibs boss on international hopes and fears

The fact that Hibs have organised a bounce game against Livingston this weekend speaks to the inconvenient nature of this international break. Being without a handful of key players – again - is the last thing Nick Montgomery needed so early in his rebuilding job at East Mains.

Yet the Easter Road boss isn’t about to start complaining about his players having their form and ability recognised by being called up for national service.

Montgomery, who will spend plenty of time in front of the TV over the next few nights and days, is even relatively relaxed by the possibility of Rocky Bushiri – now a full international for the Democratic Republic of the Congo – missing a couple of games when the Africa Cup of Nations tournament rolls around in the new year.

“I’ll be watching the game tonight,” said the former Scotland Under-21 cap, with a nod towards Steve Clarke’s men taking on Spain in Seville. “I think there are quite a few games tomorrow, so I’ll definitely be watching.

“Of course when you’re a manager with boys involved, you hope they come back unscathed – and with a great experience under their belts. So for Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller to play against England at Wembley, that’s something I’m sure both have dreamt about.

“I know Boyley has mentioned it. I don’t think I would have mentioned being at Wembley for a One Direction concert, if I was him!

“It’s a really proud moment for the club, any time one of our players appears on the international stage. But I definitely want them back fit and ready for a couple of days’ preparation heading into the next game.”

On the prospect of Bushiri heading to the Ivory Coast in January, Monty said simply: “That stuff happens. You can’t worry about it until it happens – and it’s why we build a squad of players. And you want the boys to be successful.

“Looking at the fixtures, he may miss one or two games. That’s why we have players fighting for places.

“You don’t want to be losing players during the season - but you can’t affect that. You just have to prepare for it by having people fighting for positions and making sure it’s a seamless transition when Rocky or any other player is away.

“And there’s always prestige in having a player compete in a major tournament. He’s going to be out there representing Hibs on the international and world stage. There are a lot of positives in there – and you can’t be in two places at once, that’s a fact!

“But it’s always great to have players in the international set-up. We have five or six currently.”

Boyle and Miller are part of the Socceroos squad for tomorrow night’s friendly with England at Wembley, while Bushiri is in Spain and then France for games against New Zealand and Angola respectively.

Despite playing only 12 minutes of first-team football since August as he returns from injury, meanwhile, Dylan Levitt was called up by Wales boss Robert Page. An unused sub in Wednesday night’s 4-0 thrashing of Gibraltar, the former Manchester United midfielder may struggle for game time in Sunday’s Euro qualifier against Croatia in Cardiff.

Montgomery and his coaching staff arrived at Hibs during the last international break, limiting the work they could do in that first week. One look at the calendar reminded them of the need to take precautions heading into the October hiatus.

“The rest of the boys have to come in and keep working as a group, which is why we’ve got a friendly game this weekend,” said Monty, the former Central Coast Mariners boss adding: “Whatever you want to call it, a bounce game or a trial game, we need to give minutes to some of the boys who haven’t been playing – and keep the guys who have been playing ready.

“It’s important that we keep training and working on the things we’ve put in place, because the reality is we’ve still only been here a few weeks. We’ve only had two full weeks of training before the break, so this has been our third full week – but with a limited squad due to the internationals.

“It’s definitely an opportunity to keep working on things we need to work on, even though it’s just a bounce game against Livingston. It was something we booked in quite early, knowing we’d have this two-week gap.

“It’s important for our momentum to keep getting game time and, for the boys who haven’t had as much playing time, to keep them topped up. They need to get game time.

“Everybody else is fighting to get into that starting XI. We’ve probably only got a squad of about 25, when you add the young boys in. So it’s important that everybody gets game time and is ready when called upon.”