Belgium taking Christian Benteke away is good news for Aston Villa

When word got out at the time of Christian Benteke’s injury that Belgium still wanted the striker for international duty in October, it was a pointer to his injury not being that serious.

Benteke’s return date was likely to be the shorter end of the four to six weeks period Paul Lambert said the Belgian striker would be out for. The international break was also going to absorb a chunk of that.

After Villa’s win against Manchester City, we have now discovered there is life without Benteke, but the fact the Belgian national team have insisted on him travelling is a sign that Villa should expect their top scorer back for the Spurs game at Villa Park on Sunday 20th October.

Belgium need just one point from two games against Croatia and Wales, so surely an in-form Romelu Lukaku should do the job for them.

Having kept tabs on the development of the Belgium ‘Red Devils’ over the past year, the Belgium FA have very much taken a club mentality in terms of building spirit amongst their players.

So called ‘Golden Generations’ are often ultimately hampered by the ego of individual players, but the Red Devils in get-togethers and training have always put an emphasis on fun and team-bonding, and making a conscious effort via social media to also involve their fans as often as possible on the road to Brazil 2014.

For a national team, it’s a simple but progressive way forward and they will go to the World Cup in Brazil, as a collection of talented players gelled together as a young close-knit team. An essential ingredient for tournament football, that England, for example, have been lacking for over a decade.

It’s unlikely that Benteke will play during the international break; hopefully, the Belgians just want to involve him as part of the team and not leave him behind when they clinch their expected ticket to Brazil next week.