Glenn Roeder will be keeping a close eye on Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying matches over the next week after midfielder Sammy Clingan's warning that he will be up against some Slovakian “man mountains” tomorrow.

Glenn Roeder will be keeping a close eye on Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying matches over the next week after midfielder Sammy Clingan's warning that he will be up against some Slovakian “man mountains” tomorrow.

The City boss was angry when Clingan returned from international duty against Scotland last month with an injury - but the European qualifiers for 2010 are a different ball game, albeit with similar problems.

In this case, it's the sweltering heat of Bratislava and the giant Slovakian team.

Clingan is unconcerned by the hot weather, nor is he worried about the Slovak team's physical presence.

“We know very little about the Slovakians but you can be assured we are in for a physical battle and their team will be full of man-mountains,” says Clingan.

“It's warm out here, something we haven't been used to in recent weeks but I don't envisage the heat being a problem when we kick off.”

Worthington's men return for a home match against the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

City goalkeeper David Marshall should have been on duty for Scotland away to Macedonia and Iceland but had to withdraw from the squad because of a muscle strain picked up in training last week. He was able to play against Birmingham last Saturday but then pulled out of the international squad.

Ryan Bertrand, on loan to the Canaries from Chelsea, is in the England Under-21 squad for tonight's European Championship qualifier against Portugal at Wembley, whil on-loan striker Omar Koroma is in the Gambia squad for tomorrow's African Cup of Nations match against Liberia in Banjul.