The demands of travelling to South America during the international break mean that Francisco Sierralta will only meet up with the rest of the Watford squad in a Plymouth hotel later today (Thursday).

The defender made the 15-hour flight to Peru at the start of the break, then went onto Chile before making a similar-length trip back to London, but didn’t actually play a minute for his country after being an unused substitute twice.

He was the last of the Hornets to return, and that has led to him heading directly to the west country rather than joining up with the squad at London Colney.

“I don’t mind being open on this, Sierralta will go straight to Plymouth after his flight back from Chile,” explained Tom Cleverley.

“It’s a situation I’ve never seen before in my career where you’ve got a player who is going straight to the team hotel without a training session.

“He lands at Heathrow this morning and then will get a cab straight down to Plymouth, and we’re sending a physio down there to work with him and help get the journey out of his legs and back.

“The first time I’ll see him will be when I get to Plymouth, which will be strange.

“He’s an important player for us, so we’re managing things to give him the best chance of being in the best condition for tomorrow evening.

“These are thing you have to deal with which are part and parcel of being a manager.

“Players will be having long-haul flights as part of their international duty, and while the timing of the game on a Friday night is also frustrating it’s another thing we’ll deal with.

“Apart from Sierralta, the rest will train today. For five of them their first session back will be today, but we’ve worked hard to make sure we use this next 24 hours efficiently.

“We have players coming back confident after playing and scoring.”

Festy Ebosele will miss the game at Plymouth tomorrow night due to a one-match suspension, while midfielder Pierre Dwomoh is also out due to illness though Cleverley expects him to be available for Tuesday night’s game with Bristol City.

Angelo Ogbonna is back ‘on the grass’ and should be available in the next fortnight, while Jeremy Ngakia is a likely contender for a return to action on Tuesday night.

Midfielder Tom Dele-Bashiru is still ruled out though.

“He’s progressing well but he’s one that I don’t have a timeline for,” Cleverley explained.

“It’s a knee problem where he just gets a little bit of swelling, and there’s no conclusive issue.

“He took an upturn in the last week or so and we hope that it won’t be too long.”

There was bad news for defender Kevin Keben, who has undergone knee surgery during the international break.

“He’s had a setback and he’ll be out for six to eight weeks,” said Cleverley.

“He’s had surgery on his knee to just have a bit of a clear-out really.

“It’s a different issue to the one he had when he arrived and it’s really unfortunate.

“He looked like he could be a key member of our squad who brings us something different in that back line.”