Ashley Barnes in contention for Austria appearance

29 year old Barnes qualifies to play for Austria through his late grandmother, having also represented the country at U20 level back in 2008.

Austria looked into calling the player up for this month's matches, but were unable to do so becaause Barnes does not have an Austrian passport.

All the required paperwork has now been filed with the authorities, so manager Foda is simply awaiting the go ahead. 

Foda spoke to the media, via a translateor, about Barnes ahead of his side's Nations League match with Northern Ireland. 

He said: "Ashley Barnes is a very interesting player. We've been in contact with him but we need to finalise some last things about this. We will see (about March). We need to see if it will work. We will see in March how it is going and decide then."

Foda also spoke about his feelings towards the match against the Irish, which he denied is a dead rubber fixture, due to the possibility of his side earning a promotion play off place.

The Austrian manager insisted: "We want to finish well. We will go out to win the game and get the points."

He expects a tough match at Windsor Park, in spite of Northern Ireland having only pride to play for. 

Foda added: "In the game against Northern Ireland in Vienna we saw that the players were from the beginning really good, they play a good passing game and they are very aggressive. We need to prepare ourselves well and we will need to be at our best."