Zesh Rehman has knocked back an international tournament to aid City’s play-off push.

Rehman had been selected by Pakistan for three Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup qualifiers in Sri Lanka, starting next Saturday.

But the on-loan QPR defender is staying put at Valley Parade for the season’s run-in.

He said: “I had the call-up but I’ve put Bradford first. I’m out of contract in the summer and I’m playing regularly.

“There’s no way I would jump ship now. Although it’s always an honour to play for your country, right now this is my bread and butter.

“The next month is the most important of my life.

“We’ve got a flexible agreement and the (Pakistan football) federation understand that.”

Rehman has played in City’s last three defeats but believes a top-seven spot is still well within their grasp despite the untimely slump.

He added: “If you look back at the stats against Port Vale we dominated the whole game. We just need that little bit of luck to change things.

“We’ve had teams on the back foot and if we keep doing that, it will drop for us soon.

“Being away tomorrow might suit us more because we’ve got players who can hurt teams on the counter-attack. I’m hoping that it does.

“There are highs and lows in football and you’ve got to keep that middle ground.

“Nobody gets carried away when we’re winning games and now is not the time to have your heads dragging on the floor.

“We’re not that far off it. Every day we come in everyone’s positive and that starts with the manager.”

And Rehman insisted Stuart McCall’s threat to quit if they missed the play-offs has not affected the dressing room.

“As players, you just focus on your own job. You listen to what the manager wants in a game and concentrate on that.

“The gaffer has been in football a long time, playing over 600 games, so he knows what it’s all about.

“He’ll keep believing and we know nobody becomes a bad team overnight.

“There’s always going to be pressure in football.

“I’ve played in relegation battles and now I’m pushing for a play-off place and you always go out there with the same attitude to win matches.”