Portsmouth international round-up: Makenzie Kirk features after Adrian Segecic twist
Portsmouth are finally set to have a full squad once again as the international break comes to an end at Fratton Park.
The last of the fixtures featuring Pompey’s stars took place on Tuesday, in a mixture of qualifiers and friendlies.
Five players at Portsmouth were called up for international duty. Adrian Segecic and Luke Le Roux were no doubt the main duo.
Makenzie Kirk, who signed for Portsmouth on deadline day, was also called up for the Northern Ireland Under-21s, with Hayden Matthews and Terry Devlin the other two stars named in their countries’ squads.
Now, Pompey News has highlighted how each player performed for their country over the past week.
Makenzie Kirk features in Northern Ireland Under-21s draw
Kirk could well prove to be an exciting signing for Portsmouth, and the striker did little wrong on international duty.
Playing in the Under-21s European Championship qualifiers, the 21-year-old started in the 1-1 draw against Georgia.
Here, the attacker played a full 90 minutes in a positive performance.
This would be the only match for the Northern Ireland Under-21s in a solid start to their qualifying campaign.
Adrian Segecic fails to make Australia debut
Another new Portsmouth signing this summer has been Segecic.
The attacker has been outstanding for Pompey so far this campaign and has already netted twice in the Championship.
Therefore, when the 21-year-old was called up to the Australian squad for their friendlies against New Zealand, it was assumed he would make his debut in one of the two matches.
- Segecic signed for Portsmouth in the summer from Sydney FC
- The striker has already netted twice for Pompey
- Segecic had been hoping to make his Aussie debut this week
However, this failed to transpire, with Segecic an unused Australian substitute for both games.
As a result, Socceroos boss Tony Popovic has since addressed the situation.
He said: “We have limited time with these players, but the point of this exercise was to bring young, talented, potential players for the future and see where they fit in.
“We’ll be happy either way. We have learned a lot about them, regardless of who gets minutes”
Terry Devlin, Hayden Matthews and Luke Le Roux fail to get international minutes
On top of Segecic, all three of Portsmouth’s remaining international stars failed to pick up minutes over the past week.
Matthews was also stuck on the bench for Australia’s friendlies and could not add to his sole cap.
Delvin remained on the bench for Northern Ireland’s matches against both Luxembourg and Germany.
Le Roux also failed to make an appearance in South Africa’s ties against Lesotho and Nigeria.
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