Bohemians boss Keith Long says he will bite the bullet and face Shamrock Rovers on Friday week without his international players.
Dawson Devoy, Ross Tierney and Andy Lyons are likely to be named in the Ireland Under-21 squad tomorrow for the upcoming Euro qualifiers against Italy and Sweden.
Bohs are entitled to get the derby called off but finding a new date has proved problematic and Long is concerned about overloading his players.
The prospect of playing the Dalymount clash this Thursday was floated by the league, but rejected as Bohs played St Pat’s last night and host Drogheda on Sunday.
Shamrock Rovers are away to Waterford on Friday.
Gypsies boss Long said: “We made a conscious decision to try and give the players something of a break by playing Rovers next Friday without our international players.
“That was a decision we made based on the workload on the players.
“The league wanted us to play Rovers (this) Thursday and play again on Sunday but that would have meant eight games in 24 days which is madness.
“You try to manage your players and balance the minutes that they get, not being too harmful to the players with the biggest picture which is the rest of the season.”
Long continued: “We could have had the Rovers game called off but we were in a no-win situation, it was the lesser of two evils.
“We made a decision to play Rovers on the 12th because of the volume of games. The alternative was Thursday/Sunday, having played 6 in 18 days.
“You can't do that and there was no room to extend the season, that was blocked.
“The nearest team to us in terms of playing Friday/Monday games is Shamrock Rovers with six. We have had 10 Friday/Monday games.
“Everyone else had five. That tells a story. We have three players in the international team - the U21s - it's not to do with Europe, we have international windows.
“It comes back to the conversation this time last year when international windows were a concern.
“We should have made allowances in our fixture schedule and I hope that happens next season, although that may not be our (Bohs) problem next season.”
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