How international call-ups could impact crucial Portsmouth clash with Barnsley - and a potential Blues boost

Pompey’s crucial clash with Barnsley is set to survive the threat of international call-ups - perhaps to the league leaders’ advantage.

The promotion-chasing Tykes are scheduled to visit Fratton Park on Saturday, March 23 as the campaign enters its home straight.

Invariably, both sides will be impacted by call-ups, with two players likely to be missing from either team at this stage.

The next international window involves two matches and begins from March 21 - two days before the south-coast encounter - with the second raft of games taking place around March 26.

Realistically, the Blues can expect to lose Paddy Lane (Northern Ireland) and Kusini Yengi (Australia), while Barnsley have Jamaican pair Devante Cole and Jon Russell.

Should that indeed prove to be the outcome, the match cannot be postponed on the basis of international call-ups, with a minimum of three being absent from one side needed to fulfil the criteria.

Intriguingly, that would deprive Neill Collins of League One’s joint-top scorer in Cole, with the dangerous striker netting 17 times in 34 league appearances so far this season.

That’s one more than Pompey’s Colby Bishop, who has 16 goals in 34 outings in the league at this point.

As for Russell, the midfielder has 17 league starts in the current campaign, with 24 appearances in total, while has scored twice.

Certainly in Pompey’s case, it is anticipated they would lose Lane and Yengi for just one match - Barnsley.

The duo could be available for the March 16 trip to Peterborough and then, following the international break, the Good Friday journey to Wycombe on March 29.

Yengi has two World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon, although both will be held in Australia. The first (March 21) is in Sydney, yet, with Middle East instability caused by the Gaza conflict, the away leg has now been switched to Canberra (March 26).

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland have a friendly in Romania on March 22, with Lane surely expecting to retain his squad place following a sparkling Pompey season.

Michael O’Neill’s side then travel to Scotland in friendly action on March 26 to complete their international window.

They remain the only Pompey players likely to be called-up, with Joe Morrell (Wales), Alex Robertson (Australia) and Terry Devlin (Northern Ireland) out for the season and Gavin Whyte out of favour.

As for Barnsley, Cole and Russell have been called up for Jamaica's provisional 60-man squad for the CONCACAF Nations League. Cole earned his maiden call-up in November and Russell has four caps.

The Reggae Boys have a semi-final fixture with the USA in Texas on March 21. They will then feature in the either third/fourth place match (March 24) or the final (March 25).

A prospective third international call-up, Portugal under-19 player Fabio Jalo, is currently recovering from injury.