INTERNATIONAL breaks tend to be quiet affairs – but after Wanderers found themselves splashed in the headlines for the wrong reasons in the last few days, Dougie Freedman is adamant the experience will not de-rail their promotion push.

The timing and fallout from Tuesday’s announcement that strike legend Kevin Davies will not be offered a new contract threatened to become a massive distraction as the Whites get back down to business at Charlton Athletic tomorrow afternoon.

Loose talk of on-off testimonials and a potential loan move for the skipper made the trip to The Valley a rather secondary topic of conversation at Euxton as the manager sat down for his regular press conference.

With eight games remaining and defeat at Ipswich last time out leaving the side five points adrift of the play-offs, there is little room for manoeuvre.

But despite the bad tidings, Freedman envisages no problems with his squad or his skipper in the last two months of the campaign, and believes that Davies will play a part in what he hopes will be a successful push for the top six.

“He has been involved for 38 games and he will be involved for the remaining games we have got to play,” the Glaswegian confirmed. “We have worked very hard over the break. We have had a great couple of weeks in terms of our preparation towards Huddersfield, Wolves and Charlton.

“Kev has trained well with the news he got. Charlton is going to be an exciting game for us because I feel the little setback at Ipswich just tees up this game beautifully for us.

“He is a fantastic model professional the way he has gone about his business. But I expected that.”

Freedman said he had no knowledge of the fact that the announcement that Davies would not be renewing his contract was broken on the day of the striker’s 36th birthday – widely condemned as a PR own goal by the club.

But the manager believes fans will come to accept why he has decided to release the 36-year-old talisman, who has served the club well for a decade.

“If you have any kind of love for the club, looking forward, then I think it is the right decision,” he said. “It probably will hurt a couple of the fans for a few games but once they see the younger players coming in, there is a natural progression. It’s a natural way of doing it.

“It was a very tough decision because first of all he is a real nice guy and he has got the club at heart. I have been there myself. I spent a long time at one particular club and it does hurt. But life goes on and he will come back even stronger.

“Wouldn’t it just be great for Kevin to go out with a bang.”

Freedman may even have some empathy with Davies’ situation, having been released as a player by Crystal Palace in 2008 by Neil Warnock after 13 years at Selhurst Park.

The Scot went on to play for Leeds United on loan, then finish his career with Southend United.

But he remembers well that the news was not taken well.

“It did hurt,” he said. “It took me a couple of days to get over it myself and then I was up and about looking forward to a new challenge.

“I had that challenge when I went to Leeds. Kevin has been a professional for a long time and he will understand professional decisions have got to be made.

“I just felt it right I gave him an opportunity to fix himself up as soon as possible.”

Davies will remain club captain after a move to Sheffield Wednesday failed to materialise during yesterday’s deadline day for loans in the Football League.

And Freedman reckons that the club owed it to the former England striker to investigate the option of leaving the Reebok before the end of the campaign.

“I think he deserved it from me to give him 48 hours before the deadline closes,” he said. “He is a club legend, he has done very well and he deserves to be treated that way.

“Like all players, they respect the honesty. It’s hard but I have got a job to do. And my job now is to find someone who will be as influential as Kevin.

“At the age he is at I have got to find someone to replace him.”