Coventry City’s Jordan Shipley has been called into the Irish under-21 squad by manager Noel King for the first time ahead of the final European Championship qualifiers of the current campaign.
With games away to Israel next Thursday then Germany five days later, a place in even the play-offs for next year’s finals in Italy is pretty much out of the question but King’s side remain in contention for second place in Group Five, which would be a significant improvement on the fourth place finishes achieved in each of the last two qualifying tournaments.
Ireland’s prospects of making it to a first ever finals at this level were dealt a likely fatal blow by a 6-0 home defeat by Group leaders Germany last month.
In addition to Leamington Spa-born Shipley, who established himself in the Coventry first team last season, Mansfield Town defender Ryan Sweeney and Portsmouth forward Ronan Curtis both return from suspension. The latter is also on stand-by for the senior international game against Wales while Cork City’s Sean McLoughlin is included by King again after having made his debut against Germany.
Ireland squad: Kieran O'Hara (Manchester United, loan Macclesfield Town), Liam Bossin (Nottingham Forest); Danny Kane (Cork City, loan AFC Flyde), Corey Whelan (Liverpool, loan Crewe Alexandra), Ryan Sweeney (Stoke City, loan Mansfield Town), Ryan Delaney (Rochdale), Jimmy Dunne (Burnley, loan Hearts), Sean McLaughlin (Cork City), Shaun Donnellan (Yeovil Town); Josh Cullen (West Ham United, loan Charlton Athletic), Harry Charsley (Everton), Ryan Manning (QPR, loan Rotherham), Liam Kinsella (Walsall), Jordan Shipley (Coventry City), Jamie McGrath (Dundalk); Reece Grego-Cox (Crawley Town), Ronan Hale ( Birmingham City, loan Derry City), Joe Quigley (Maidstone United), Jake Mulraney (Hearts), Ronan Curtis (Portsmouth).
