ARON Gunnarsson says he is looking forward to the weekend's clash with Preston North End despite having just returned from his home country after featuring in two internationals in five days.

The 19-year-old midfielder started both of Iceland's World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Scotland on Saturday and Wednesday.

But despite having had little time to relax over the past week, Gunnarsson insists he is raring to go for this weekend.

"I have played a lot of football over the last few days but I'm a Viking and I can take it," he said.

"It was really good turning out for my country and it was great experience for me and although we only got one point from two games I think we deserved more.

"No-one really expected us to get anything against Norway and we managed to get a point and we lost to Scotland but at times I though we played the better football so we were disappointed to lose that."

The youngster also said he enjoyed grabbing the opportunity to spend time with his family on Wednesday after they made the trip from hometown Akureyi to Icelandic capital Reykjavik to watch him in action against the Scots.

"They were all there to watch me which was nice and it was good to be able to sit down with them and eat and relax for a little bit.

"But I'm back now and I'm fit, I didn't pick up any injuries from the international games and if the manager wants me to play Saturday I'm ready."