Denis Smith last night warned his international players to return from Euro 2008 duty ready to revive Wrexham's league push.

The Dragons boss is missing four key regulars from training due to the international double-headers starting this weekend.

Welsh Club Player of Year Mark Jones is joined by forward Chris Llewellyn and left-back Ryan Valentine in John Toshack’s Wales squad for the games against Slovakia and Cyprus, while goalkeeper Mike Ingham is with Northern Ireland for their games against Denmark and Latvia.

Smith yesterday warned he hoped his players were training as hard as the rest of his Dragons squad ready for the return to league action against MK Dons a week on Saturday.

“I hope they’re training hard enough and doing as hard work as we’re doing here,” said Smith. “Maybe if they’re not involved in the matches they’re not training quite as hard as those who are, so I’m hoping they’re doing the extra to get on and up to speed.

“The lads here are working extremely hard because they’re not playing, so I hope they’re working as hard.

“It’d be lovely if you could prepare for football matches by sitting on your backside, but unfortunately you can’t.

“They need to be relaxing at the right time and training at the right time, and I’ll be happy if they come back having done that.”

Smith said he would be making changes to Wrexham’s starting line-up for the visit of MK Dons to the Racecourse as he was hoping to welcome back from injury centre-half Shaun Pejic (Achilles), midfielder Levi Mackin (knee) and striker Neil Roberts (ankle).

Longer-term casualties – strikers Lee McEvilly and Juan Ugarte – are also nearing fitness.

“Lee McEvilly’s up and running again, which is good, and Juan Ugarte’s a couple of weeks away all being well,” Smith said.

“I’m hoping to have players like Pejic, Levi Mackin and Roberts fit for the next game, and when you’ve got players who are generally first-choice fit they’re likely to be playing.”

Smith said he was not letting recent bad results, including a run of six games in which Wrexham have lost five times and conceded 19 goals, affect his preparations.

“What you do is look at the overall picture, not the short-term picture,” he added. “You can get yourself in all sorts of trouble if you look at the short-term picture and start picking players and changing players on the whims of newspapers.”

Meanwhile, Jones said he would not rest on his laurels after picking up his gong.

The Wales international has set the dual targets of Dragons promotion and a first senior cap as his goals for the season.

“If Wrexham get their key players back we can go on a run and go up,” the midfielder, who has hit five goals so far this term, said last night from Wales’ training base in Barry.

“That’s the ambition along with my first cap. I’m enjoying just being with the Wales squad, but a cap is my aim.”

Jones says that Smith and coaches Kevin Russell and Brian Carey deserve credit for his award, which was announced at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Tuesday night.

“I’ve been at the club since I was a kid, those three have helped my progress no end,” said Wrexham-born Jones.

“The last 12 months have been up and down with the off-field problems at the Racecourse, but it’s looking good now and we have to start delivering on the pitch.”