Forest Green Rovers have decided to play through a demanding international window after four players were called up for international duty, creating a significant selection challenge for manager Robbie Savage.
The players are expected to miss the home fixture against Boston United, described by the club as taking place “a week on Saturday”, followed by matches against Wealdstone, Scunthorpe United and Sutton United. The source does not provide calendar dates for those fixtures.
Forest Green had the option of seeking postponements because of the number of international selections. Savage said the relevant ruling allows a club to postpone games when it has at least three international call-ups. However, discussions with the club’s hierarchy ended with a decision to keep the fixtures in place and trust the squad to cope.
Four players involved in Hornchurch victory
Savage described the scale of the call-ups as unusual at National League level. All four players had been involved in Forest Green’s Saturday victory at Hornchurch: two started the match and two came off the bench and made an impact.
The manager did not conclusively identify all four players. The source mentions Kairo Mitchell, D’Mani Mellor, Gabe Kircough and Oli Ewing among those involved in the international selections. Mitchell has 15 caps for Grenada.
Other players mentioned in the report include Liverpool loanee Kyle Kelly, who has represented St Kitts & Nevis, and Swindon Town loanee Filozofe Mabete, who is a Democratic Republic of Congo Under-23 international. Because Savage did not name the four call-ups in full, those names should not be treated as a definitive list of the players who will be absent.
The absences could affect the majority of the run of matches against Boston, Wealdstone, Scunthorpe and Sutton. That leaves Forest Green short of players during a sequence Savage described as important, although the selections also represent recognition for the club’s players and recruitment work.
“It’s unprecedented at this level,” Savage said.
He said the call-ups were both a source of pressure and a major achievement for Forest Green. Four players receiving international recognition for qualification matches gives the rest of the squad a lift, but it also means the manager must prepare for several games without players who had recently contributed on the pitch.
Why the club will play the fixtures
The decision not to postpone was partly based on the consequences of creating a backlog. Savage said postponing the matches could leave Forest Green three or four games behind. A further international window is expected in November, and a similar situation then could increase that gap to six or seven matches.
That would leave the club facing a highly compressed programme later in the season, with matches potentially arranged in a Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday sequence. Savage said there was no perfect option: playing the fixtures means losing key players, while moving them would create a growing list of games to catch up.
The club also considered the effect on supporters. Rearranged matches could force fans into a lengthy run of Saturday and midweek travel. Savage said supporters might have to finish work early, make long journeys at night and manage their train journeys home while following a more congested schedule.
Rather than create those problems, the club has chosen to keep the planned games and look for short-term reinforcements during the international period.
“We’ve decided as a club that we’ll play the games,” Savage said.
Temporary squad cover planned
Forest Green’s stated plan is to strengthen the squad while the international players are away. Savage said the club would probably bring in a loan player for either one month or three months, depending on what is needed to cover the difficult period. He also referred to the involvement of a youngster who could provide additional support.
At the time of the report, Savage said the loan move was expected to be announced on Monday. No player was named in the supplied material, so the identity and length of any loan remain unconfirmed here.
The decision to continue was made after discussions involving Savage, club owner Dale Vince, Asif Rehmanwala and Mark Bowen. The club’s approach is to rely on the wider squad, supplement it where possible and avoid deferring four matches that would then need to be fitted into an already busy calendar.
Savage said the club believed it had enough players to get through the fixtures, despite acknowledging that the international absences would leave Forest Green “a little bit short”. The planned recruitment is intended to ease that pressure rather than change the club’s decision to play.
Recognition for Forest Green’s recruitment
Although the call-ups create an immediate sporting problem, Savage said they also support the direction Forest Green has taken. He described four international selections as significant news for the club and said they showed that its recruitment process and strategy were working.
The selections are for qualification games, making the recognition particularly important to the players involved. Savage also said the situation could be the first time a National League club has had four international call-ups, although he made clear that this was his view and that he could be proved wrong.
Forest Green will therefore enter the international window balancing two outcomes: a reduced group for a run of league matches, and evidence that players recruited by the club are reaching international level. The immediate next step is to add the expected loan cover and youngster before the fixtures against Boston United, Wealdstone, Scunthorpe United and Sutton United.