World Cup qualifiers: Leicester City's Kasper Schmeichel staying at home to become a dad

Kasper Schmeichel has withdrawn from the Denmark squad because he is set to become a dad.

The Leicester City keeper was called into Morten Olsen's squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria, on Friday, and Italy next week.

But he has asked to stay at home as his partner is due to give birth shortly.

Meanwhile the Republic of Ireland have conformed that Sean St Ledger will miss the World Cup qualifiers against Germany and the Faroe Islands because of the hamstring injury he picked up while playing for Leicester in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Bristol City.

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St Ledger reported to Giovanni Trapattoni's squad yesterday and underwent a scan in the afternoon, which confirmed his absence.

St Ledger later tweeted that he was out for at least a month.

Andy King and Anthony Knockaert are City's only international absentees.

King is with the Wales squad that is due to face Scotland and Croatia, while Knockaert is with the France under-21 squad, who face Norway on Friday and Tuesday in the Euro 2013 qualifying play-offs.

The rest of the squad will use the break to recharge their batteries and City boss Nigel Pearson said it had come at a good time after the exertions of their five-game winning streak. As well as St Ledger's injury, Paul Konchesky had to be withdrawn from the Bristol City game because of illness, while Jamie Vardy was replaced through fatigue.

Ritchie De Laet returned after suffering a tight hamstring but was not risked from the start, and his replacement Liam Moore also appeared to be limping in the closing stages of the game.

"In some ways, we would like to keep the momentum going but, in another way, it is a great opportunity to refresh and recharge the squad," he said.

"We have had a tough opening 10 games. I know the players well and we had one or two tired legs out there and we had to change it a couple of times with Konchesky not feeling well and St Ledger hurting his hamstring.

"With Vardy, we just felt with the amount of leg work he does that it was important to rest him, and I wanted to change the shape because we didn't start the second half brightly.

"The international break is out of my control, but it can be useful in allowing some of the squad to recover after a very busy period."