Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell calls for any games where a club has a player away on international duty to be postponed.
Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has called for any games where a club has a player away on international duty to be postponed.
Caldwell will be without Josh Magennis later this month after the striker was recalled to the Northern Ireland squad.
Under English Football League rules, games in League One and Two can only be called off should one side have three or more players called up - while Championship and Premier League clubs do not play over the international window.
Magennis is the only Exeter player to so far be called up by his country this month.
Should opponents Reading not have three players away, the game at St James Park on 11 October will go ahead - a decision the Exeter boss feels affects the integrity of the league.
"I think if you have one player the game should be called off," he told BBC Radio Devon.
"I think that has to be a rule that comes in at this level, because Lincoln are going to face a stronger Exeter City than Reading are going to face, it's as simple as that.
"That shouldn't be right for the league so, for me, it should be called off, but we know what the rules are at this moment."
"It's not just us in this situation, a lot of teams are similar, and Reading are waiting on a few players, so they might have the three, but they might have two, they might have one.
"I think League One is a really strong league now. There's more and more international players in it so why not fit it into the calendar like they do for the Championship and the Premier League?"
Caldwell hailed Magennis' recent form which has led to him being recalled by his national team.
The 35-year-old forward has scored four goals in 10 games this campaign since recovering from a hip injury which forced him to miss the final month of last season and needed surgery in the summer.
"I think it's a credit to him, his performances have been excellent since coming back from a serious hip operation and he fully deserves that," Caldwell said.
"He's still got that drive to get more caps and it was one of the reasons when I spoke to him about coming to this club and playing for us that he wanted to keep his international career going as well.
"I was fortunate to play at international level and I was always really proud to go for my country and always tried to turn up in whatever physical condition I was in, probably to the detriment of my career.
"But I think for him to get over his injury, he's as fit as a fiddle, he is loving his football, scoring goals, to get that recognition can only be good for his morale and his games coming up.
"So hopefully he goes away and gets some game time and does well and comes back ready to impact our season after Reading."
Category: General Sports
