Brentford full back Henrik Dalsgaard has been forced to pull out of the Denmark squad for their World Cup play-off tie against the Republic of Ireland.
The Dane picked up a heel injury in the 2-0 win over Birmingham City, which ruled him out of the 3-1 win over Leeds United.
The news did not come as a surprise though with Dean Smith expecting his full back to have to pull out.
He said after the Leeds win: “I think Henrik may struggle with the heel injury, I'm not sure whether he's going over to be looked at by their doctor or not but he certainly was struggling to make tonight. He couldn't make today.”
Dalsgaard now faces a race against time to be fit for the trip to Cardiff on November 18 with the club facing an shortage of personnel at full back.
Josh Clarke, who has performed admirably at left back after a season ending injury to Rico Henry, was moved across to the right side with Yoann Barbet, a centre back by trade, playing on the left side.
Smith added: “Yoann came on Wednesday so I thought it was the right thing to do to stick with Yoann and I thought, for somebody who is not a natural leftback, his use of the ball is very good.
“He probably tired, he probably used up a little bit more energy than he would have done at centre-half, so I thought he put in an accomplished display.”
