Portsmouth loanee handed boost and chance of early reunion with Manchester City team-mates despite Blues suspension blow

It hasn’t been enough to warrant a place in the Socceroos’ 23-man squad for their London double-header against England and New Zealand respectively.

But the on-loan Manchester City ace has effectively been placed on stand-by for the Wembley and Gtech Community Stadium fixtures after been named as one of three ‘train-ons’ by the Aussies.

The midfielder joins Paris FC loanee Mohamed Toure and Viking FC player Patrick Yazbek in adding back-up to the official squad and will train with his international team-mates throughout their time in England.

Any injuries in the Australia ranks could see him earn a call-up and potentially face Citizens team-mates Kyle Walker, John Stones, Kalvin Phillips and Jack Grealish in the friendly against the Three Lions next Friday night.

Robertson’s recognition comes as he has establishes himself as a key cog in the Blues’ pursuit of League One promotion.

The loanee has started the league leaders’ five past league games, recording two assists, and only misses out on a sixth consecutive place in John Mousinho’s line-up against Port Vale today because of a one-match ban. His yellow card in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win against Wycombe was his fifth of the season and warrants an automatic suspension.

In total, Robertson has featured 13 times for the Blues following his summer move from the Etihad Stadium and has seven yellow cards in total.

The twice-capped Aussie international is joined on the sidelines today by Regan Poole, who also picked up his fifth league booking of the campaign against the Chairboys.

And like Robertson, he too will be linking up with his international team-mates after being recalled to the Wales squad for their October internationals against Gibraltar and Croatia.

The Blues have three official call-ups heading into the international break, with Paddy Lane (Northern Ireland) and Terry Devlin (Northern Ireland under-21s) also linking up with their respective national squads.

That has resulted in next weekend’s trip to Northampton being postponed.

Poole, Lane and Devlin will definitely not be available for Pompey’s game against Gillingham in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night. It’s not clear, however, if Robertson will be made available.