WANDERERS boss Neil Lennon is keeping his fingers crossed his international stars return from duty fit and well next week.

Lennon admits it is always a nervy time for a manager and the Whites have four players away, including in-form forward Chung-Yong Lee as well as Medo Kamara, Adam Bogdan and young striker Conor Wilkinson.

Tim Ream, who has been named as finalist for the North West Championship Player of the Year award at next week’s MBNA North West Football Awards, is not part of the US men’s team taking on Colombia in London and Republic of Ireland in Dublin this time around after his recall in the last international break.

It means Korean Chung-Yong is the only one who has been a regular starter under Lennon so far heading out and the Wanderers manager admitted he would love to wrap the 26-year-old in cotton wool rather than see him jet off for friendly games in Jordan and Iran with his country.

Lennon said: “The international boys will be away and it’s a very worrying time for a manager.

“I’ve told Chungy he’s not allowed to go. I’m going to hijack him and put him in a sack.

“It’d be nice if the Korean FA decided they didn’t need him.

“He’s got 700 caps so don’t think he’d miss a couple.”

Frustrating as it is for Lennon, there is not much he can do about the two-week sabbatical for much of his squad. But he has allowed those left behind a few days off to recharge the batteries as he looks to go again at Blackpool on Saturday week and pick up where the team left off on a high against Wigan last Friday.

That 3-0 win moved the Whites out of the bottom three relegation spots and the boss will hope the break will not affect momentum that has been building since he took the helm last month.

In the six games since he replaced Dougie Freedman, the Whites have had a return of 12 points from 18 available.

Lennon added: “I had far more internationals at Celtic so it would be a case of kicking your heels for a week but here I’ll have the rest of the lads in, give them four or five days rest, then start as of the Monday to look at Blackpool.

“It as been a pretty hectic time for everyone. But it was good to go into this international break on a high.

“We are now in a decent place.”