Franco Umeh and Emmanuel Adegboyega have received their first call-ups for the Republic of Ireland U-21s for the upcoming UEFA European Championship qualifiers against Turkey and Latvia.
Head coach Jim Crawford has named a 24-man squad for the matches.
Crystal Palace and former Cork City forward Umeh as well as Dundee United and former Drogheda United defender Adegboyega are the only new faces.
There's a return to the squad for Killian Phillips fresh from his loan move to Scottish Premiership side St Mirren and James Furlong who is on-loan at Wimbledon but Bosun Lawal and Tony Springett, who featured in the last camp, miss out.
Tayo Adaramola, Zak Gilsenan, Sean Grehan, Conor Carty and Adam Murphy are all working their way back from injury.
Ireland will base themselves in Dublin before flying out to Istanbul for the qualifier against Turkey on Friday, 6 September.
The young Boys in Green return to Ireland before facing Latvia in Tallaght Stadium the following Tuesday.
Crawford has also reinforced his backroom team with Stephen Rice joining the Under-21s coaching staff as assistant coach having worked with the senior team as chief scout and opposition analyst for the last three years.
Rene Gilmartin, who is the head of goalkeeping at Ipswich Town and served as goalkeeping coach with the senior team in the last two international windows, returns to the U21s in the same role, having been involved in the position since 2019.
Crawford said: "Firstly, I would like to welcome Stephen to the U21s. He’s someone I’ve worked with numerous times and he’s an exciting and talented coach and someone who will bring a lot to our young players. He’s a former Ireland youth international and if you add that with his experience with the senior team it’ll be a benefit to our young players.
"I’m also delighted to have Rene Gilmartin back involved with the U21s. I’ve worked with Rene for more than five years and he’s a hugely impressive coach and big asset to us. He’s doing brilliant things with Ipswich Town and knows our group of goalkeepers well, has a brilliant knowledge of set-pieces and knows the standard needed at international level which is invaluable to us."
Republic of Ireland Under-21s squad:
Goalkeepers: Tiernan Brooks (Gateshead), Killian Cahill (Brighton & Hove Albion), Josh Keeley (Tottenham Hotspur)
Defenders: James Abankwah (Udinese), Emmanuel Adegboyega (Dundee United, on loan from Norwich City), Sam Curtis (Peterborough United, on loan from Sheffield United), James Furlong (Wimbledon, on loan from Hull City), Anselmo Garcia-MacNulty (PEC Zwolle), Alex Murphy (Newcastle United), Connor O’Riordan (Cambridge United, on loan from Blackburn Rovers), Sean Roughan (Lincoln City)
Midfielders: Baba Adeeko (Wigan Athletic), Matt Healy (Royal Francs Borains), Joe Hodge (Huddersfield Town, on loan from Wolves), Andrew Moran (Stoke City, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion), Killian Phillips (St. Mirren, on loan from Crystal Palace), Rocco Vata (Watford)
Forwards: Sinclair Armstrong (Bristol City), Aidomo Emakhu (Millwall), Johnny Kenny (Shamrock Rovers, on loan from Celtic), Mark O’Mahony (Portsmouth, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion), Ollie O’Neill (Leyton Orient), Armstrong Oko-Flex (FC Zürich), Franco Umeh (Crystal Palace)
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
