BURNLEY’S international stars will be given an extended break before preparing for the 2015/16 season.

The Clarets report back for duty on Wednesday, with a day of fitness work planned by manager Sean Dyche.

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But the five who have been away with their respective countries during the short five-and-a-half week close season will be allowed extra recovery time.

Michael Keane has only just returned from the Czech Republic following England Under-21s exit from the Euro 2015 Under-21 Championships group stages, while Tom Heaton received his first call-up to the senior England squad for games against the Republic of Ireland and Slovenia, in Ljubljana.

Sam Vokes featured as a late substitute for Wales in their impressive 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifier with Belgium on June 12.

Danny Lafferty was called up for Northern Ireland’s games with Qatar and Romania and a behind-closed-doors friendly match with the Republic of Ireland earlier this month.

Stephen Ward travelled with the Republic of Ireland for their friendly with England and Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland on June 13.

While the rest of the Burnley squad return to their Gawthorpe training base on Thursday, Dyche feels it is only fair that the quintet rest well.

“They will be given some extra time definitely,” he said.

“Those guys have gone a long way.

“They’ve got a plan, we’ve already done individual tailored plans for rest, recovery, but also some work ready for when they come back.

“It’s important they get some added time because they need to refuel mentally as much as anything, so they will come in at a later stage.”

But while Dyche has given his players space over the summer, whether they were on international duty or not, he has kept up to date with the fitness of those who have not had as much rest since the season came to a close at Aston Villa.

“We’re obviously monitoring them,” said the Burnley boss.

“You can imagine now the science at international level and club level now is very similar but it’s also very open.

“We can get all the stats and the workloads. They become more open with that.

“We can keep tabs on them in good detail with Mark Howard (head of sports science) and Ally Beattie (first team physio).

“I have spoken to them (the players) to touch base and see if everything’s okay, but I tend to ring the managers. The players hear enough of my voice during the season!”

The players are all set to travel together for their pre-season training camp in Évian-les-Bains, France, next week.

The trip will end with Burnley’s first friendly, against Swiss side Étoile Carouge on July 10, before returning to East Lancashire and playing Accrington Stanley at the Store First Stadium on July 18 (kick-off 3pm).