Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston is nearing a return to fitness after being out for most of the season with hamstring problems.
Johnston, 27, has been called up by Canada for matches against Iceland and Tunisia later this month.
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However, his club boss Martin O’Neill would have preferred him to stay with Celtic over the international break.
“He’s doing really well,” O’Neill said. “He’s really, really doing very, very well indeed. His national side want him to go for a week over there.
“We at this minute would probably prefer him to stay. I don’t think it’s going to be a big issue as long as he’s training somewhere.
“We need to have some sort of bounce games or something like that there for him to play in here as soon as possible.
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“He’s doing great, by all accounts, and I want to see him from a distance, because you boys will tell me better than I would know, but apparently he’s a really decent player. Really decent player.
“So that’s big news for us if he can come back for the part of the run-in anyway. So that would be great.”
