International duty Sparrows Lane will have been a lonely old place this week. I wonder how Chris Perry feels? Because out of the senior players that are left only he has never tasted top brass International duty.

15 players are out playing for their countries this week in such far flung places as Kazakhstan (Rommedahl and maybe Andersen), Ecuador (Sorondo) and Boston (Spector).

Of course all eyes will be on England (except mine, I really can't be bothered) because you know the turnip, sorry Swede will play that fellow vegetable (string bean) Crouch up front alongside Owen and not the top English Premiership goalscorer.

As was mentioned today, Bent has scored more goals this season than the rest of the strikers in the English squad put together but as Sven is still recovering from the temporary blindness that effected him at the Valley on Saturday he probably hasn't noticed.

Let's hope if it is all going horribly wrong with 30 minutes left they throw Bent on, he was quite handy coming on as a sub (I presume for players such as Judas Defoe and Rooney) in the U21's scoring 8 goals in 12 games, only 2 of which were starts. What is certain is that Luke Young should gain his 5th cap at right-back.

Of course, I like everyone else (Curbs is probably split on the idea) is hoping to see as many Addicks play on next summer's world stage as possible but at the moment only Jonathan Spector (and he probably won't be an Addick next summer) has his passport out on the sideboard and dusted.

We know of England's situation but what about the others? Russia and their captain Alexei Smertin play Luxembourg and then a decider against Slovakia for a play-off place.

Matt Holland's Republic are in probably the tightest qualifying group in the world and they have a huge week ahead of them with games against Cyprus and Switzerland.

Danes Romm and Andersen need to be a part of a win at home to Greece on Saturday to give them a chance of finishing 2nd and on-loan Thomas Myhre's Norway still have a good chance of 2nd too.

El Karkouri's Morocco have to win in Tunis if they are to beat the Tunisian's to top spot in the African zone's final group 5 match. Gonzalo Sorondo will be hoping for a play-off berth at best in the South American qualifying competition. After Ecuador they round off at home to table toppers Argentina.

Meanwhile Shaun Bartlett, who I expect will return to South Africa at the end of the season, has already hung up his boots after South Africa failed to qualify, JJ (Finland), Kish (Bulgaria), Hreidarsson (Iceland) and Lisbie and Euell (Jamaica) can all book their trips to the Costa Brava as they will be watching and not playing next summer.

So a lot rests on the next seven days and let's hope we can be proud of as many Addicks as possible on next year's biggest stage when they appear on television with Charlton Athletic in brackets after their names.  ¶ 18:05