Hibernian manager John Hughes admits his team selection for the visit of Kilmarnock may be influenced by the fact that seven first-team players have been on international duty.

Several Hibs players will not return to Edinburgh until late this week as the World Cup qualifying groups reach a climax.

Sol Bamba played 90 minutes for Ivory Coast as they drew in Malawi on Saturday and the World Cup qualifiers face Guinea on Wednesday.

Merouane Zemmama could not prevent Morocco's World Cup hopes ending in a 3-1 defeat by Togo on Saturday but both he and Abdessalam Benjelloun remain in the squad to face Cameroon on Wednesday.

Derek Riordan made an 11,000-mile round trip to Japan for 15 minutes of action for Scotland while Paul Hanlon played the full game as Scotland Under-21s beat Belarus, with team-mate David Wotherspoon on the bench.

Liam Miller sat out the Republic of Ireland's draw with Italy but he will not return until after Montenegro's visit to Dublin on Wednesday night.

So, while Hughes rested much of his squad over the weekend, most of the team that started against Dundee United the previous Saturday were not among them.

"The guys who have been away on international duty have not really had a rest and we'll have to think very carefully about that," Hughes told the Evening News.

"It will certainly come into the equation when I'm picking my team for next Saturday.

"It depends on when they get back to us, whether they have managed to steer clear of injuries and wee knocks and how they are physically in general because travelling does take a lot out of you.

"We will need to gauge each of them individually when we get them back and hopefully they will all come back relatively unscathed."