As the cliché goes “A week is a long time in football” and
it feels an eternity since a Middlesbrough player last kicked a ball in the
SkyBet Championship.
It’s been nearly two weeks since Aitor Karanka’s side
recorded an impressive away victory at Sheffield Wednesday and well over a
fortnight since their last outing at the Riverside where they suffered a shock
defeat at the hands of newly promoted Bristol City.
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| Boro's Christian Stuani playing for Uruguay |
Since then many of the squad have had time to reflect on the
first five league games of the season, in a week which has seen England qualify
for next summer’s European Championships. But for some the last few days have
been very busy indeed, after seven Boro players were involved on the
International scene.
Uruguayan striker Christian Stuani, who scored his first league
goal against Wednesday in August, was on the score sheet again as his nation
beat Panama 1-0 in a friendly on Friday. He was then used as a second half
substitute in last night’s 1-0 friendly defeat to Costa Rica in San Jose where
former Fulham playmaker Bryan Ruiz scored the only goal.
Elsewhere Emilo Nsue was part of an Equatorial Guinea side
which were unexpectedly beaten 1-0 by South Sudan who recoded their first ever
win in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Tomas Kalas was an unused substitute
in both of Czech Republic’s Euro qualifying games, in which they recorded 2-1
victories over Latvia and Kazakhstan to reach next year’s finals.
It was a similar situation for fellow defenders Jack Stephens
and Dael Fry who were also unused subs for the England Under 21’s and Under 19’s
sides respectively.
Bryn Morris captained the England Under 20’s side which lost
1-0 to the Czech Republic while Lewis Maloney was a second half substitute in Northern
Ireland’s Under 21’s European Champion qualifier again Scotland which they lost
2-1 before playing the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 drew away in Iceland.
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