World Cup heartbreak for six Clarets
Jack Cork made his England debut last week, coming on as a late substitute in a 0-0 draw against current world champions Germany in a friendly at Wembley.
It has taken the total of full internationals at Turf Moor to sixteen players who have represented a total of eleven different countries. Twelve of those players have played international football whilst at Burnley, the exceptions being Phil Bardsley, Anders Lindegaard, Fredrik Ulvestad and Nahki Wells.
For Cork, it has been a superb international break, even if it did force him to miss out on a short family holiday in Dubai, It was another of those superb moments for Burnley fans, watching a Claret step onto the pitch for England. In Cork’s case it was coming on for Jake Livermore. But for six other Clarets, the week has brought World Cup heartbreak as their hopes of reaching Russia came to an end.
Five Burnley players saw their hopes disappear in Dublin on Tuesday night. Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick and Stephen Ward were all in the Ireland team hammered by Denmark in the second leg of their play-off. Kevin Long was also in the squad and Jon Walters, currently out injured, was there offering his support.
That left this week’s hopes with Chris Wood and New Zealand. Wood was left out of the team that drew the first leg 0-0 in Wellington but last night came on as a substitute, replacing Bill Tuiloma at half time, as they went out with a 2-0 defeat against Peru in Lima. He did have the ball in the net too, but it was ruled out for a push.
The trio of Brady, Hendrick and Ward played in both legs of Ireland’s play-off games against the Danes and there were also international appearances this week for Defour and Gudmundsson. Defour got his first game for Belgium in over a year when he came on with six minutes remaining in their 1-0 win against Japan on Tuesday, replacing Axel Witsel.
Iceland played Qatar on the same date. Gudmundsson was an unused substitute but had played in their 2-1 defeat against Czech Republic, playing the first half in a game also played in Qatar.
Ireland had beaten Wales to reach the play-offs so that meant two friendly internationals for Wales. Sam Vokes started both, a 2-0 defeat against France in Paris followed by a 1-1 home draw in Cardiff against Panama.
Among the ex-Clarets who have played for their country in this latest international break, there was a debut for Tendayi Darikwa. The Nottingham Forest right-back played for Zimbabwe in a friendly against Lesotho in Maseru which they lost 1-0. He followed that up with a second game, a 3-1 defeat against Namibia in Windhoek.
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