Irish Squad Announced for Euro 2016 Qualifiers against Gibraltar and Georgia

FOUR Derby County players have been named in the provisional Republic of Ireland squad for the upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Georgia.

The squad features the inclusion of Bournemouth’s Eunan O’Kane, who earned his first senior call-up.

The teenager has so far delayed a decision over his worldwide future in order to focus on his club career, but now Grealish is expected to commit one way or the other imminently.

Martin O’Neill expects England-born Republic of Ireland target Jack Grealish to end speculation over his global future by committing himself to one country soon.

Ireland face Gibraltar again at the Estádio Algarve, in Portugal, on 4 September, before hosting Georgia on 7 September. It’s a big decision for him.

Fellow uncapped players Alan Judge and Adam Rooney have also been included in the extended squad, which will be reduced ahead of assembling on the evening of 30 August. “You’d like the goalkeeper that you’ll be relying on to have had some first team opportunities by the time that the games come around”.

“I’m pleased I had the conversation and they were receptive to what I was saying. That’s a disappointment but it is also nice to see Ciaran Clark back from injury and playing in the Aston Villa side”. When I was at Aston Villa, he was the captain of the youths, I gave him his debut against Fulham and he did really fine.

Speaking at today’s press conference at the FAI headquarters, Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill said: “These are two very important games in our qualifying campaign and we are looking forward to them”.

Shay Given is back on the sidelines since his move to Stoke City and looks set to stay there for the moment while neither John O’Shea nor Given’s club-mate Marc Wilson have featured yet in a first team game.

The 1-1 draw with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in June represented a significant blow to their chances of claiming even a play-off berth, and they can afford no slip-ups if they are to remain in the mix.