ROBINS boss Mark Cooper does not believe there will be an issue with Yaser Kasim having to leave his international colleagues in the midst of the Gulf Cup campaign to return to Swindon.

Iraq have one game left in their tournament group and need a win over the UAE on Thursday to progress to the semi-finals. However, the tournament is not recognised as an elite international competition meaning Iraq and Kasim must comply with the FIFA international window, which expires before the final pool fixture on Thursday, and that the Town man must return to the club.

Cooper understands it must be a difficult situation for Kasim with regards to his club and country priorities but believes his player will be happy to return despite the tournament the midfielder was playing in being unfinished “I think he wants to come back as this is where his bread and butter is,” said Cooper.

“This is where he’s going to be long-term in English football hopefully. I think he knows he has to come back, he wants to come back and like you say he’s caught between the two.

“(The Iraqi FA’s haphazard approach) is not going to change. That’s the difficulty for him and doesn’t want to upset us and he doesn’t want to upset them.

“(Iraq) have another game to qualify, I think they’ve got it all on to qualify and they want to keep him but we’re within our rights to call him back.”

Kasim, who scored his first goal for his country on Monday, and Luongo, who played just over an hour for Australia yesterday, will both be back in training on Thursday.

Cooper and his staff will judge their recovery from playing and travelling then and make decision regarding the Peterborough game.

“They’ll both be in training Thursday,” Cooper added.

“We’ll assess them on Thursday, see how they are, see how their legs are.

“What we do know is that the boys on Saturday can do a job.

“We will have to see (how they are) when they come back and assess whether they can give us 90 minutes.

“They’ll both be in training Thursday. We’ll assess them on Thursday, see how they are and see how their legs are. What we do know is that the boys on Saturday can do a job.”