Two international winners but Heaton ruled out with injury
Two Burnley players, Stephen Ward and Johann Berg Gudmundsson, were on the winning side tonight in World Cup qualifiers, but for Tom Heaton his latest spell of international duty has come to an end because of injury.
England reported this evening that Tom, pictured with fellow England goalkeepers Joe Hart and Fraser Forster, has left the squad and returned to Burnley with a minor injury and has been replaced by Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford. They’ve given no indication as to what the injury is other than to describe it as minor.
That would suggest there should be no problem in him taking his place in goal for our game at Southampton next Sunday and it would certainly be a surprise if he wasn’t there. Since signing for Burnley he has started every league game, a grand total of 137. The only league action he’s missed was in the fourth of those games when he was sent off at Brighton.
Two of our players have featured in wins this evening after Sam Vokes played for Wales in their 1-1 draw against Georgia in Cardiff in an earlier kick off.
Jeff Hendrick was ruled out with through a suspension for the Republic of Ireland in Moldova but Stephen Ward played in the 3-1 win. Southampton’s Shane Long gave them the lead but after a Moldovan equaliser they went on to win it with two goals from West Brom’s James McClean.
There was also a 2-0 win for Iceland against Turkey in Reykjavik with the goals coming within two minutes of each other just before half time. They took the lead when an Elmar Bjarnason shot was deflected in by Turkey’s Ӧmer Toprak with Albert Finnbogason netting the second.
That’s five of our eight internationals now set to return but Steven Defour is with the Belgian squad who play Gibraltar tomorrow in Portugal and Michael Keane is on his way to Ljubljana for England’s game against Slovenia on Tuesday. Scott Arfield remains with Canada who have a game against Morocco on Tuesday.
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