Tony Mowbray expects a Chile call-up for Ben Brereton in January to rule him out of up to two matches.

Brereton will be away with the national team for crucial World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Ecuador this month, with Chile facing six more games between November and March in their quest to reach Qatar 2022.

Brereton scored twice in wins over Paraguay and Peru last month as La Roja kept up their hopes of qualifying for next winter's tournament.

Despite games against Argentina (January 27) and Bolivia (February 1) falling outside of the scheduled international breaks, Mowbray expects the international commitments of Brereton, who has three goals in eight caps, to to take precedence.

That would rule him out of the game at Luton Town on January 29, and possibly the trip to Swansea City on February 5, or an FA Cup fourth round tie.

“If it’s an international break, even though it’s not an international break for us, I’m assuming we’ll have to release him and I don’t think there will be much choice for us,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“If he gets called up for his country I believe he’ll have to go and play.

“It seems strange to me, as I said last time, that the clubs pay these players’ salaries yet they called away by their countries who don’t pay anything to help the clubs and you don’t have the player.

“I coach the team, I don’t get involved in the politics.”

Brereton has been in fine form for Rovers this season, with his double at Derby County taking him to 12 goals in 15 games.

That ended a run of three games without a goal for Brereton since returning from the October qualifiers where he scored twice and played all but 17 minutes.

He returned to the UK on the eve of the Coventry City draw, and declared himself available to feature, coming off the bench in the second half of the 2-2 draw.

Chile’s schedule next month has only two games, rather than the three played in October, while coronavirus travel restrictions have been lifted meaning the 22-year-old won’t have to quarantine upon his return.

He didn’t join up with the Chile squad in September, before an agreement was reached over his involvement in October, but Rovers are hopeful things will be more straightforward this time around.

Chile moved up to sixth in the South American qualification group, three points behind Colombia who, in fourth, occupy the final automatic spot, while the team who finishes fifth will go into a play-off.

La Roja have six more matches to play, and while Mowbray knows the importance Brereton has for his country, the manager’s focus is understandably on Rovers.

He said: “First and foremost we’ve got to hope he comes back fit.

“These are big games, he’s building a reputation for himself so the pressure will be on him, the intensity to work even harder than he does and to try and score to help the team win.

“He’ll come back on the back of that and we’ll try, in two days from him coming back, to give him the urgency to do the same for us.”