BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche is ‘very hopeful’ that captain Tom Heaton will overcome a calf problem to take his place in the Clarets side at Southampton on Sunday.

The club’s seven other internationals have come through a week away with their countries unscathed, including Michael Keane, who was a late call-up to the Three Lions squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia.

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Although he remained on the bench at Wembley and at the Stozice Stadium on Tuesday, Dyche believes Keane’s first taste of senior international football can only be a benefit to the 23-year-old.

When Keane linked up with England last Tuesday he was the second Claret in the squad, but Heaton had to withdraw before the trip to Slovenia due to injury.

“He seems okay. We’ll get more news over the next couple of days, the extra day is helpful with us playing Sunday,” Dyche said of his skipper.

“We don’t think it’s too serious. He did it in training, he felt his calf was a bit tight. The Football Association were really good with that (withdrawing him from Slovenia game), we got it checked out and it’s just a tiny little strain but you’ve still got be careful with these things.

“It’s an extra training day to be feeling right about everything and ready to go.

“We’re hopeful but there’s no guarantees, the game’s still a few days away but we’re very hopeful on it.”

Keane’s late call, to replace the injured Glen Johnson, made it eight regulars away on international duty for the Clarets, breaking the record of seven that was set during September’s international break.

England boss Gareth Southgate said Keane, who has impressed for Burnley in the Premier League this season, had only narrowly missed out on a call-up to the initial squad.

And Dyche believes his defender fully merited his inclusion.

“It’s not really out of the blue, I think it’s deserved, certainly to at least be around it,” he said.

“It’s different if you’re talking about starting and straight in the team because he’s still young and he’s still learning and he’s improving all the time.

“To be in and around the group and get a feel of it then why not? He’s holding his own at the moment in the Premier League and there’s not many young centre halves playing in the Premier League.

“It gives him different voices, different ways of training and preparing and being part of a quality group of players.”

As well as Heaton and Keane, Jeff Hendrick and Stephen Ward (Republic of Ireland), Sam Vokes (Wales), Steven Defour (Belgium), Johann Berg Gudmundsson (Iceland) and Scott Arfield (Canada) were all away with their countries over the past fortnight.

Keane and Defour, who featured for Belgium on Tuesday night, return to Gawthorpe today, but the rest were back in club colours for training on Wednesday.

“It’s good for the club to have eight recognised internationals, I think that’s a tremendous thing,” said Dyche.

“The obvious thing is you want to win games and you want to win enough to be successful, but behind that we do believe in development here and maximising players and the group.

“When I got here I don’t think we had eight internationals away, so it’s a good sign that we’ve helped develop players and and brought good players in who have continued to get stronger in their time with us.”