MARTIN O’NEILL HAS named an extended squad ahead of Ireland’s upcoming summer series, including a first senior call-up for Burnley defender Kevin Long.
The Boys in Green travel to the US to face Mexico in New Jersey on 1 June before a second friendly against Uruguay at the Aviva Stadium three days later.
Those matches will acts as warm-ups to the vital World Cup qualifier at home to Austria the following week — Sunday, 11 June.
Before their trip Stateside, a selection of the panel will spend three days at Cork’s Fota Island — the resort that hosted the pre-Euro 2016 training camp a year ago — in order to get their fitness up to speed.
“The training camp that we’ve organised is essentially for the Championship players,” O’Neill said at today’s press conference in Dublin.
“We’ve a group of about 15 or 16 players who finished the season a couple of weeks ago and they’re not involved in the play-offs. They’ve had a long season and a little bit of a break, some of them haven’t played a lot in games towards the end of the season.”
Captain Seamus Coleman misses out as he recovers from a double leg-break, while Ciaran Clark (knee) and David Meyler (knee) are also absent.
There’s a first call-up for Clarets defender Long, who recently made his Premier League debut for Sean Dyche’s side.
Despite their fine goalscoring form at club level, Cillian Sheridan of Polish title contenders Jagiellonia Bialystok and Cork City’s Sean Maguire do not feature with Shane Long, Jon Walters, Kevin Doyle, David McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy and Adam Rooney making up the forwards.
Republic of Ireland Squad
Goalkeepers: Colin Doyle (Bradford City), Rob Elliot (Newcastle United), Keiren Westwood (Sheffield Wednesday), Darren Randolph (West Ham United)
Defenders: Cyrus Christie, Richard Keogh, Alex Pearce (Derby County), Paul McShane (Reading), Shane Duffy (Brighton & Hove Albion), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Andy Boyle (Preston North End), John Egan (Brentford), Marc Wilson (West Bromwich Albion), Kevin Long, Stephen Ward (Burnley), Matt Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Midfielders: Aiden McGeady, James McCarthy (Everton), Glenn Whelan (Stoke City), Jeff Hendrick, Robbie Brady (Burnley), Harry Arter (Bournemouth), Conor Hourihane (Aston Villa), Stephen Gleeson (Birmingham City), Eunan O’Kane (Leeds United), Darron Gibson (Sunderland), Liam Kelly (Reading), Wes Hoolahan (Norwich City), James McClean (West Bromwich Albion), Callum O’Dowda (Bristol City), Daryl Horgan (Preston North End), Jonathan Hayes (Aberdeen)
Forwards: Kevin Doyle (Colorado Rapids), David McGoldrick (Ipswich Town), Daryl Murphy (Newcastle United), Shane Long (Southampton), Jonathan Walters (Stoke City), Adam Rooney (Aberdeen)
– This piece was updated to include James McCarthy (Everton) in the squad list. McCarthy was not named on the FAI’s original squad release, but an FAI spokesman subsequently confirmed that he is in the squad.
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