TAL Ben Haim has given Sam Allardyce his first injury scare of the international break - before a ball has been kicked.

The Wanderers defender, who has been outstanding as emergency left-back, is doubtful for Israel's European Championship qualifier in Russia on Saturday.

He missed training yesterday with a knee injury he picked up in the weekend victory over Liverpool and, along with West Ham's Yossi Benayoun, fears he may have to sit out the Moscow game.

The injury is not thought to be serious, but it is an early warning of the risks to Wanderers of having more than half their players on international duty.

Allardyce currently has 11 members of his first team squad on national service, some of whom have two games to play before Wanderers return to Premiership action at Newcastle on Sunday, October 15.

And with injuries already affecting team selection to the point where Ben Haim has been forced to play out of position, he can ill afford any more bad news on the fitness front.

He will be particularly keen for Ben Haim to return with a clean bill of health after seeing how impressively the 24-year-old centre-back has adapted to new roles - initially at right-back, then in the problem left-back berth in the victories over Portsmouth and Liverpool that have helped Wanderers rise to third in the Premiership after seven games.

"We've got no option at the moment," Allardyce said, assessing the Israeli defenders adaptability that proved a major factor in the weekend win against Liverpool, who withdrew right winger Jermaine Pennant with less than an hour of the game played.

"When the need is great, you ask somebody to do a job for you. There can be no excuses. It just has to be done, you have to do a job for the team - and Tal has been doing a terrific job for us.

"When you see your player substituted, it tells you how good a game you've had."

The injury situation is easing with Quniton Fortune and Henrik Pedersen receiving intensive treatment at the Wanderers' training camp in Spain in an attempt to be available for selection at Newcastle.

But Allardyce can only keep his fingers crossed that his international players return fit and well from their travels. In addition to Ben Haim, Idan Tal is on duty with Israel and have been absent from the Spain camp along with Jussi Jaaskelainen (Finland), Stelios (Greece), El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Faye (Senegal), Abdoulaye Meite (Ivory Coast), Ali Al-Habsi (Oman), Andranik Teimourian (Iran), Ricardo Vaz Te (Portugal U21s) and Johann Smith (USA U20s).