Wigan Athletic boss cites 'incredible moment' for international break
‘Incredible moment’ for an international break, says Wigan Athletic manager Gary Caldwell
Gary Caldwell feels the first international break of the campaign has come at the perfect time for everyone connected to Wigan Athletic.
Latics' midweek victory over Blackpool in the rebranded Jersey Mike's Trophy allows the side to put its collective cue back in the rack for two and a half weeks.
Both Saturday's scheduled League One trip to Leicester City and the visit of Mansfield Town the following weekend have been postponed due to international call-ups in the opposition ranks.
Latics also have three players - Reggie Walsh, Archie Harris and Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen - who will be away on international duty.
However, because Chilokoa-Mullen hasn't played in 50 per cent of club games this term, Latics didn't meet the threshold themselves.
Nevertheless, after a 'horrific week' for Latics - following the passing of goalkeeping coach Kevin Miller at the age of 57 - Caldwell is thankful for the opportunity to recharge bodies and - even more importantly - minds.
"It's come at an incredible moment for us, the break in the schedule," said the Latics boss.
"If we had a game at the weekend, I don't know how we could go in to it. It would just be too much, too draining.
"We've all tried to be as professional as possible, to get our heads down and work and get through these games.
"Now we need to recover and regroup. We need to have some moments to ourselves, but also we need to have moments together, where we can grow as a team.
"I keep saying that this team has huge potential, but we need some time for that potential to come out.
"Look at the last few games...barring a really bad 30 minutes against Stockport, and Saturday...which I'm not looking to deeply at the result, because of the emotion involved and the feeling and what happened...there have been a lot of good things and we need to build on that."
On-loan Chelsea starlet Walsh is in a 24-strong England's Under-19 squad for four important warm-up games ahead of their Euro qualifying campaign.
Harris will make his final appearance for Wales Under-21 in their Euro 2027 qualifiers against Belgium and Austria before he ages out.
Chilokoa-Mullen has been called up by the Scotland Under-21 squad for their concluding European qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.