Inigo Calderon has insisted that "it makes no sense" that he will be without one of his key players for Bristol Rovers' massive game away at Crawley Town on Saturday because of an international call up.
Ruel Sotiriou, who has scored or assisted three of the Gas' last six goals, will miss this weekend's huge game down at the bottom end of League One because of international duty with Cyprus who begin their World Cup qualifying campaign with matches against San Marino and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Naturally, it is a huge honour for the 24-year-old who currently has only one cap to his name, but the fact that Rovers' game is still going ahead because of the rules in place in League One during the international period has frustrated Calderon.
"I'm really disappointed that I cannot go to watch him, to Cyprus," the Gas head coach joked to Bristol Live. "To be fair, to me it makes no sense at all that you lose a player at this time of year. You have a massive game against a team that is with you and you are missing a player. That doesn't make too much sense.
"I think the calendar should be more ready because in League One, maybe we don't have players going with Spain, England or Germany, but you have players that are maybe going with countries not at that level and you still miss them. I think Crawley will probably miss a player or two as well.
"I am saying it's for everyone, not just for us, but it will affect us. I don't think it's great that we don't have a break that the national teams have."
Currently, there is no set international break in the schedules of teams playing below the Championship with second tier clubs getting a fortnight off alongside Premier League sides. However, clubs at League One and League Two level can request postponement of a fixture if they meet the required threshold of three players called up for international duty.
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There is an increasing amount of players competing at League One level that are also internationals, particularly with youngsters coming in on loan from Premier League clubs who represent their nation at youth level, but there is still no break in place.
Alongside Sotiriou, Rovers will be without another striker in Ollie Dewsbury who came off of the bench for the Gas in two of their last three games. However, the 17-year-old's situation is different ahead of playing for Wales' Under-17s after only just coming into the first-team.
Saturday's game is of significant importance though with Crawley seemingly heading for an immediate return to League Two while Rovers need to return to winning ways to ease their own relegation concerns after having their advantage above the bottom four cut to six points last weekend after being thrashed 5-0 at Lincoln City.
Two matches elsewhere this weekend have been postponed due to call ups with Calderon adding: "There's a rule about that. I think it's three players. I don't know, maybe it's three players that aren't even playing and we have one player that was playing at a high level.
"Listen, they probably have the rules because they think it was the best. You have to take it. I'm not really an excuse man so we try to do our best and that's it."
