Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has called for any games where a club has a player away on international duty to be postponed.

Caldwell will be without Josh Magennis later this month after the striker was recalled to the Northern Ireland squad.

Under English Football League rules, games in League One and Two can only be called off should one side have three or more players called up – while Championship and Premier League clubs do not play over the international window.

Magennis is the only Exeter player to so far be called up by his country this month.

Should opponents Reading not have three players away, the game at St James Park on 11 October will go ahead – a decision the Exeter boss feels affects the integrity of the league.

“I think if you have one player the game should be called off,” he told BBC Radio Devon.

“I think that has to be a rule that comes in at this level, because Lincoln are going to face a stronger Exeter City than Reading are going to face, it’s as simple as that.

“That shouldn’t be right for the league so, for me, it should be called off, but we know what the rules are at this moment.”

“It’s not just us in this situation, a lot of teams are similar, and Reading are waiting on a few players, so they might have the three, but they might have two, they might have one.

“I think League One is a really strong league now. There’s more and more international players in it so why not fit it into the calendar like they do for the Championship and the Premier League?”