SEAN Dyche insists he will not worry about having key players on international duty in the run-up to the East Lancashire derby, because he trusts them to look after themselves.

The Clarets are without prolific strike duo Sam Vokes and Danny Ings until at least Thursday with the pair involved away on international duty.

After Saturday’s 2-0 win over Derby, Vokes teamed up with the senior Wales squad tomorrow ahead of tomorrow’s friendly with Iceland, while Ings joined the England Under 21 camp in preparation for tomorrow’s European Championship qualifier with Wales U21s at Derby’s iPro Stadium.

Left back Danny Lafferty has also been included in the Northern Ireland squad for their friendly away to Cyprus and will not return to the Clarets’ Gawthorpe training base until later in the week.

In contrast, Blackburn Rovers will retain the services of top scorer Jordan Rhodes ahead of Sunday’s showdown at Ewood Park, after the Scotland striker failed to receive a call-up to Gordon Strachan’s squad for their friendly with Poland, after pulling out of their last three fixtures.

With only three recognised senior strikers, and newest recruit Ashley Barnes still awaiting his first start, it is not ideal preparation for Burnley to be without their main strike pair.

But Dyche said: “It’s like earlier in the season when it first started happening.

“You want your players to be recognised because they’re doing so well but the balance of that is that they get taken away from you.

“Nowadays they (the international set-ups) have made it quite clear we have no juristiction and no pull on certain occasions so I don’t really overthink it.

“I know they’ll look after themselves when they’re away and come back ready to deliver again.”

Dyche revealed that he and his staff had worked hard on educating the players about injury prevention and ways of getting the most out of their small squad.

“At virtually every level I would say you have sports science support, good physiotherapy. We include dietary support,” he said.

“The players have bought into that. They deserve enormous credit because they apply themselves well away from the place of work.

“We reinforce it with good education, good habits, good professionalism from the staff which bleeds into the player, a good culture and a good environment.”