Heart of Midlothian star Calem Nieuwenhof could be denied the chance to represent Australia U23s in their Paris 2024 Olympics qualifiers.
Calem Nieuwenhof, 23, had proved a hit since making the summer switch from Western Sydney Wanderers. The midfielder has made 29 appearances including several influential recent showings that have helped Hearts go 11 points clear of Kilmarnock in third as they target a best of the rest Scottish Premiership finish.
And that's why Jam Tarts head coach Steven Naismith would be so reluctant to allow Nieuwenhof to divert his attention away from club football at a vital time in the season.
Australia's youth side have an international triple-header in April as the AFC U-23 Championships begin. The tournament will also include a passageway into this summer's Olympics. They take on Jordan on April 15, Indonesia on April 18 before facing Qatar on April 21 - the same day Hearts are scheduled to go head-to-head with Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-finals at Hampden Park.
READ MORE: Ian Murray slams Dundee United after Raith denied more away tickets
So, despite Nieuwenhof even earning shouts of a senior call-up, Naismith believes the Aussie is too valuable for Hearts to lose him.
He admitted: "I'm not sure. We'd have too many big games coming up at that point. He's been valuable for us. I'm not sure that's something we could sanction, really.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here