They? Or he did not want to risk himself - Halaand always prefer club football to country games cause nobody give a fuck about him on the international level.
In some cases it's perfectly logical. Look at what happened to Gavi yesterday - ACL tear in a fully irrelevant game vs Georgia.
Odegaard did not play as well for Norway - in some countries the fans even understand these choices. In Croatia everybody would be fuming - all our players constantly play for the national team and the pressure to perform is high, whereas Norway has no such atmosphere/expectation in the national team.
If I was a manager at the club, I'd do all in my power to keep important players from playing in unimportant qualifiers - and 80% of these are really unimportant.
Gavi, at the age of 19, has a greater international legacy and is more patriotic to his country than Halaand; it's a greater honour to get fucked up playing for your motherland than it is to play for your club side. Gavi will be remembered for giving his all for the Spain jersey.
Mikel OBi is Nigeria's most decorated player today after sacrificing his Chelsea career for the country.
No international game is unimportant in Africa; every player wants to play.
City players always seem to get minor injuries at this time of the year and are usually back by the end of the international break.)