JOHN McGreal says the absence of players on international duty this weekend will open the door for other players in his Colchester United squad to shine.

The U’s will be without both midfielder Brandon Comley and winger Luke Gambin for their trip to play Crawley Town tomorrow, as they are away with Montserrat and Malta respectively.

McGreal admits the duo will both be missed – but the U’s head coach feels it is also a good opportunity for other players in his squad to stake a claim.

McGreal said: “These boys have international duties and I’ve said from day one that it’s a fantastic accolade for the individual and also for the club, when their countries come calling.

“Comley’s form has been excellent – he’s been very, very good and he’ll be a miss.

“Gambin has been excellent for me as well, when you think of the Tottenham game and coming on last week (against Stevenage) and doing particularly well.

“But again, it gives other boys opportunities and that’s where the squad’s strength comes in.

“(The Spurs under-21 game) gives me food for thought, ahead of Saturday.

“We have a bigger squad this season and we have to try and keep the minutes up with certain players.

“There were eight changes but it was a pretty strong team.

“We put a team out to try and win the game of football, which is what we had at Gillingham.”

Colchester will today check on the fitness of winger Kwame Poku ahead of the game, after he came off in the latter stages of the Leasing.com Trophy game with Spurs under-21s on Tuesday night with a knee injury.

Paris Cowan-Hall and Harry Pell remain out but the U’s are confident that loanee Brendan Wiredu will be fit for the Crawley clash, despite him limping off in the latter stages of the game against Spurs’ youngsters with a knee problem.

Meanwhile McGreal has heaped praise on defender Tom Eastman, with the long-serving defender set to make his 300th league appearance for Colchester at Crawley tomorrow.

“Tom’s been brilliant since I’ve been here," added McGreal.

“He’s played a lot of games and seldom gets injured and when he does get injured, he wants to come back as quickly as he can.

“It’s credit to Tom that he’s got to those numbers, as a centre-half.

“Whether it’s been John Ward, Joe Dunne, Tony Humes, Kevin Keen or myself, he’s always tended to play regular first-team football so it shows you what kind of pro Tom is.

“He’s an excellent lad who gets on with his work, doesn’t complain, gets his head down and works hard."