Gary Rowett admits he would have loved more time with Derby County’s international players in the last week – but says their call-ups should be embraced.

A number of Derby’s first-team squad members have been away with their countries over the course of the last week, at both full and youth international level.Although that has given Rowett less time to work with those players, having taken over as Derby’s new boss earlier this month, the 43-year-old feels that seeing them on the international stage can only be viewed as a positive for the club.Preparations are well underway for Derby’s home game against Queens Park Rangers on Friday night at Pride Park Stadium and Rowett is looking forward to having a full squad to work with once again.He told: “In some ways it has been a good week for our players away on international duty.“I think that’s important and, as annoying as it can be in terms of not having them around for preparation, you want your players representing their countries and making headlines – as long as they are positive.“It will be nice to get them all back in one piece, for sure.”Midfielder Will Hughes wore the captain’s armband for England’s Under 21s on Monday evening as they ran out 4-0 winners in a friendly against Denmark.It was the first time, in a professional game, that Hughes had been handed the captaincy.Reacting to the news, Rowett said: “I am sure it was a proud moment for Will.“I haven’t seen the match yet but I will be watching it and I understand that he had a good game.”Rowett was in Dublin to watch the Republic of Ireland’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Wales last Friday.The game ended in a 0-0 draw and Rowett, watching from the stands, got the chance to see Derby defenders Richard Keogh and Cyrus Christie in action – and admitted it was a chance to cast an eye over the other players on show.He said: “The Irish fared pretty well in what was a difficult game.“Rich put in a steady performance in defence and Cyrus also came on in place of the injured Seamus Coleman, which was really sad moment.“It wasn’t a game full of quality but it was good to be there and see a few targets that we’re interested in looking at also.”He added: “It was a like a real top end Championship game, with no disrespect to the Premier League players on show, and it was a good game to watch.“It wasn’t just a case of just watching our players, although it was good to get some more information.”Ikechi Anya and out-on-loan striker Chris Martin featured for Scotland in their friendly against Canada last week, as well as their World Cup qualifier against Slovenia on Sunday.The pair started against Canada, with Anya winning the Man of the Match award, but they had to be content with a place on the bench for the clash with Slovenia.However, they both had an impact when they were introduced into the action, with Martin scoring a dramatic late winner in a 1-0 victory.Rowett said: “I watched the Scotland game and I am sure Ikechi will have been disappointed not to start after his Man of the Match performance in the previous game.“However, both he and Chris came on and did well.”Martin, who is on loan at Sky Bet Championship rivals Fulham until the end of the campaign, signed a new contract until 2020 back in January.Rowett says he has spoken to Martin in the last few days to discuss future plans, as well as Jamie Hanson and Andreas Weimann, who are with Wigan Athletic and Wolverhampton Wanderers until the end of the campaign.He said: “I had a conversation with Chris last week and I think he’s looking forward to coming back and being part of what we’re doing.“I’ve read some reports out there that I’m imminently looking to sell him; that’s not the case.“We spoke about one or two things we’re looking to try and do next year. We told him that we see him part of that and he seemed to be enthused by what we were talking about.”He added: “I had a good chat with him and I’ve also contacted Jamie Hanson and Andreas Weimann, who are also out on loan.“With all three, the conversations were about looking forward to seeing them back at the end of their loans and they are Derby County players until someone says otherwise.“I’ve seen reports about Andreas going to Wolves permanently but the player has got to want to go there. All we can do is make the players aware of our plans going forward.”Tweets by @ dcfcofficial