Portsmouth striker handed international recall - despite just 29 minutes of football after 3 month injury lay-off

The 26-year-old has made just Blues two appearances since the previous international break in November, when he damaged cruciate knee ligaments while appearing for the Socceroos.

After being sidelined through injury, the powerful front man completed his comeback against Luton at the start of the month, where he made a lively 28-minute appearance off the bench.

Having come on against Leeds in the 89th minute on Sunday, the League One title winner was overlooked for Mark O’Mahony on Wednesday evening as the Blues went in search of an equaliser against Plymouth.

Despite this, it appears Yengi did enough during his cameo against the Hatters to impress on-looking Aussie boss Tony Popovic. The 51-year-old was a mysterious fixture in attendance at Kenilworth Road - maintaining a low profile in the directors’ box.

The trip to Bedfordshire almost proved fruitless following injuries to duo Hayden Matthews and Thomas Waddingham prior to the game, with Yengi the only Aussie representative in John Mousinho’s squad.

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Indeed, the front man has been rewarded with a call-up to the national squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and China - games that take place in Sydney (Thursday, March 20) and in Hangzhou (Tuesday, March 25).

Pompey hope to avoid another injury to Kusini Yengi

Pompey will be hoping the 26-year-old will return to Fratton Park after the international break with a clean bill of health having just ended a three-month lay-off.

Prior to Yengi’s inclusion in Popovic’s squad, Mousinho spoke of his preference to keep the striker at Fratton Park to avoid any injury repeats - but the head coach made it clear he would not stand in the way of a call-up.

The Blues boss told The News: ‘There's nothing you can do about those sorts of things, really - and we can’t exactly sit here and say he's safer here with us with some of the injuries we’ve had this year.

‘It was frustrating losing Kas when with Australia. He did it in a game, so it’s one of those where there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

‘We’d probably prefer to have Kas in the building for this international break, but, at the same time, I never want to stop anyone from fulfilling their international ambitions.

‘We wouldn’t stop it. If players are called up, they are called up. Our policy anyway at the football club is that we want players to go and play international football.

‘As I’m sure you can imagine, we have a very, very good relationship with the Australian FA. There have been a couple of times over the past few years - and I can’t remember the specifics - where we’ve had conversations with the head coach and sports science department about where we think the level of a player’s fitness is and whether they think they might be better off staying here.

‘In fairness, Australia have always worked with us on that - and we would never want to abuse that relationship. Kas is fine and available to go.’

Yengi becomes the second member of Mousinho’s side to be handed an international call-up this week after youngster Terry Devlin was included in the Northern Ireland senior squad for the first time.

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