BOSS Scott Parker has insisted midfielder Philip Billing’s “main focus needs to be Bournemouth” to keep improving after being snubbed by Denmark again.

The 25-year-old Copenhagan-born star has been influential for Parker this season as his Cherries side top the Championship table with 40 points and just one defeat after 17 games.

The only game in which he hasn’t started was the 0-0 draw at Hull City in August, but despite providing six goals and laying on three direct assists Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand has not afforded him an opportunity to add to his one international cap.

Denmark even had to select two new players after the initial squad announcement, with Robert Skov pulling out through injury and Brentford’s Mathias Jensen withdrawing after testing positive for Covid-19.

But the gaffer instead picked FC Midtjylland winger Pione Sisto and Rubin Kazan’s Anderd Dreyer, who also played for FC Midtjylland before moving to Russia in August.

Parker thinks that the best route for Billing to get back into the national reckoning is to get his head down at Cherries, and improve on the facets of his game that he still can.

He said: “I think that’s exactly it, we’re constantly trying to make Phil better, trying to improve him, there’s still large parts of his game.

“But his main focus needs to be Bournemouth, that’s his bread and butter and what is ultimately going to get him into any national setup.

“His start to the season personally from my side has been very, very good, goals, assists, he’s contributed to the team and his numbers are going on the right track, that was my main focus for him.

“His whole general midfield game is going (in the right direction), that’s the thing I’ve said to you before is that sometimes he has the tendency to flow in and out of games.”

He continued: “He has big quality but the tendency to flow in and out and I’ve definitely seen a massive improvement in that, he’s definitely on the right track.

“We need to see him maintain that improvement and if he does that we have a big player on our hands, but he needs to focus on that really.”

Denmark have had a perfect World Cup qualifying campaign so far, with just two games left to play against Faroe Islands and Scotland.

The European Championship semi-finalists have won all eight games, amassing a goal difference of 27, and have already booked their trip to Qatar for the 2022 tournament next winter.

Billing will hope he can do enough in the next 12 months to convince Hjulmand he can offer something different to his squad.