Big Lad, big headache for the Silver Fox

Congratulations to Big Lad, who on Wednesday evening belatedly made his full international bow at the age of 31 - and for the country of his birth, Nigeria, rather than England. He never had the opportunity to team up with former Toon colleague Obafemi Martins, instead finding himself as Martins' replacement, but did manage to set up the Super Eagles' third and final goal in the victory over Venezuela. Having felt "honoured" by the experience, he's now hoping he's done enough to force his way into Stephen Keshi's Africa Cup of Nations squad. The Silver Fox could be forgiven for hoping otherwise.

Elsewhere, the domestically suspended Sideshow Bob helped Argentina keep a clean sheet against the mighty Saudi Arabia and, from a club perspective, it was a relief that Mr T, Davide Santon and Tim Krul spent all evening on the benches for their respective countries. However, the fact that Dreamboat didn't feature in France's win over Santon's Italy was less worthy of celebration - his absence due to an injury that might rule him out of tomorrow's visit of Swansea. With Spidermag having limped out of last weekend's disappointing home defeat to Fat Sam's West Ham, we suddenly look very light in central and attacking midfield areas.

A further source of frustration is that Papiss Cisse might also miss out due to administrative error. He withdrew from the Senegal squad for their friendly with Niger (as did Demba Ba) with a slight back injury, but it seems that the communication never reached the national team's coach and now they're threatening to bar us from playing him. It could only happen to us...