PORT Vale loan signing Ryan Inniss could follow Chris Birchall’s footsteps and play for Trinidad and Tobago.
The 19-year-old centre half has been a huge hit since joining the Valiants two games ago from Crystal Palace. He’s certainly impressed his team mate Birchall who is hoping the 6ft 5in defender will pledge his allegiances to Trinidad and Tobago.
Inniss has played for England at under-17 level but qualifies for Trinidad and Tobago through his father.
Birchall told the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian: “He could be a great addition to the team. You need depth going into a World Cup qualifying year, so I believe he adds quality. I would recommend him to get a TT passport from now so things are organised.”
Birchall qualifies for Trinidad and Tobago because his mum was born in Trinidad. He became the only Port Vale player ever to appear in the World Cup when he represented Trinidad and Tobago in the 2006 tournament in Germany. He helped them to a draw with Sweden in their opening World Cup game and also played in their 2-0 defeats to England and Paraguay.
Vale are keen to extend Inniss’s loan until the end of the season and are likely to contact Palace next week to sound out the Premier League club.
Vale boss Rob Page brought Inniss in a fortnight ago and has been delighted with the way the youngster has helped Vale bounce back to form with wins over Walsall and Doncaster.
He said: “When you are on a bit of an indifferent spell there are three things you can change.
“You can either do something drastic in training and try to change some of the techniques , change the way you play or change the personnel.
“If you are looking at experienced lads of 36 or 36 ho have been there and done it, you have to pay top whack for them.
“We haven’t got the facility to do that so the next best thing then was to find someone who is young hungry but had all the attributes that I wanted from a senior player.”
Here’s the full list of Vale’s international players, with thanks to Valiants historian Phil Sherwin.
PORT VALE’S INTERNATIONALS
Chris Birchall (Trinidad and Tobago) 26
Anthony Rougier (Trinidad and Tobago) 20
Sammy Morgan (N Ireland) 7
George Abbey (Nigeria) 6
Teddy Peers (Wales) 4
Eamon O’Keefe (Rep of Ireland) 4
Jon McCarthy (N Ireland) 4
Billy Bingham (N Ireland) 3
Andy Jones (Wales) 3
Ryan McGivern (N Ireland) 2
*David Healy (N Ireland) 2
James Lawrie (N Ireland) 2
Anthony Griffith (Montserrat) 2
* Neville Southall (Wales) 1
* Andy Little (N Ireland) 1
* Denotes players on loan at Vale when they were capped.