The prospect of a serving Hull City player representing their country at the World Cup finals has taken a big step after Nigeria defeated Kenya in one of the African play-offs to qualify for next summer’s tournament.

It means that Seyi Olofinjana will, in all probability, go to the finals while on the books of the Tigers.

Australia’s qualification back in June opened the way for Richard Garcia to potentially become a City representative at the tournament, and now Olofinjana joins him after Nigeria’s dramatic 3-2 win in Nairobi. This, of course, is on the understanding that one or both players will not be sold by City, dropped by their squads or crocked by the rigours of Premier League relegation battles in the meantime. And once safely assigned a squad place and an A1 fitness certificate, they have to be picked to play.

City have had lots of former and future players at the biggest of all footballing events, but never before has a serving member of the Tigers squad played at the finals. Dave Roberts and Tony Norman might have managed it in 1978 and 1986 respectively had Wales not blown it each time in the last qualifier against the Scots – Norman would have had a rare chance as Neville Southall was out with a broken ankle for a year. Northern Ireland couldn’t qualify in the 70s, 90s or 00s, when Terry Neill, Alan Fettis and Stuart Elliott were all regulars, but went to both tournaments in the 80s, when City had no Ulstermen in contention at all. Typical. The two Jamaicans, Theodore Whitmore and Ian Goodison, joined the Tigers after playing at the 1998 tournament and had gone again before 2002. And who mentioned Jamie Wood and the Cayman Islands? Oh, nobody.

Now the club has quite a lot of current internationals on their books, heightening the opportunity to break this duck.

Garcia and Olofinjana could be joined by at least one more club colleague in the South African summer, as Kamel Ghilas could still make it, with Algeria having to play Egypt again in neutral Sudan after the two were deemed inseparable on both points and goal tallies. A glimmer of hope also remains for the Irish trio of Paul McShane, Kevin Kilbane and Stephen Hunt, though they go into the second leg of their play-off a goal down to the ever-popular French team.

And no, Bernard Mendy will not make their squad if they do complete the job in Paris. Reh.

The USA qualified last month but Jozy Altidore may not be a City player by the time the tournament starts, while the prospects of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink adding to his 19 caps for Holland will depend on his form between now and the end of the season, and isn’t helped by his fall off the radar between his summer release by Celtic and his arrival at the KC in September. The countries represented by Boaz Myhill, Tony Warner, Peter Halmosi, Daniel Cousin and Kamil Zayatte have failed to qualify, while Geovanni’s chances of adding to his one Brazil cap, earned in 2001, probably evaporated years ago.

Then there is Jimmy Bullard. He was in Fabio Capello’s thinking just before he joined City and although the World Cup is probably a bridge too far for the corkscrew-haired midfielder, a run of games displaying the sort of form he showed against Stoke City could yet jog the Italian’s memory, especially as he has a policy of picking players on form. At the very least, it’d be nice to think Bullard could break the other international-related duck that City still endure – that of never having a serving England international. We can hope.

Following revelations in the national press today, City have confirmed that Ian Ashbee signed a one-year extension to his existing contract. The deal, signed last month, expires in June 2011. That’ll be nine years after Jan Molby signed a little-known Cambridge midfielder on a free transfer, who has since gone on to create English footballing history. Although the timing of club’s announcement comes as a slight surprise, some 33 days after the deal was apparently secured, it hopefully indicates that Ashbee’s recovery from cruciate ligament damages is progressing well.