JIM CRAWFORD SAYS he is excited to work with Owen Elding and has hailed the Sligo Rovers forward as “an exceptional talent.”

However, the Republic of Ireland U21 boss admitted he was disappointed not to have the 19-year-old available for the upcoming European qualifiers with England and Andorra.

Elding, son of former Bit O’Red striker Anthony, is still in the process of completing the necessary paperwork to represent the Boys in Green.

His family moved to the west coast from England when he was a child and after settling there he has emerged through the League of Ireland club’s academy.

Elding scored 12 times in the Premier Division this season, earned a place in the PFA Ireland team of the year as well as a nomination for young player of the year.

It has also been reported by the Sligo Champion that Sturm Graz are pushing hard to sign the teenager and invited him to their Europa League clash with Nottingham Forest last night.

“Owen Elding still hasn’t gone through yet. We understand it’s a long process and you can’t put a timeline on it,” Crawford said.

“From my own perspective, it’s disappointing he’s not involved in this international window, but we’re very hopeful that the next window in March he’ll play a big role in the squad. I’ve been in touch with Owen a few times. He’s extremely keen to come in, but we’re dictated by a process and we’re comfortable with that process.

“When it happens, it happens. I’m certainly looking forward to working with him because I think he’s an exceptional talent. There’s been a lot of publicity about him and rightly so because of the season he’s had with Sligo.

“But I think when you strip back what he could bring to the group as an individual, I think it’s one that we as the U21 staff are looking forward to working with him.

“I’ve never gone through this process before, but I know there’s a lot of good people in the association here that are linking up with officials at a government level with it. It’s a process. There’s no fast-tracking anybody. We’ve got to accept that and we do.”

Ireland are third in the group and face England in Birmingham next week, trailing Lee Carsley’s back-to-back European champions by two points with Slovakia three clear of Crawford’s side

“We’re not naive, they’re the hot favourites in the group,” he said of England.

“They’re an unbelievable team. The quality of players they have, if you go through it, they’re players who have made a lot of Premier [League] appearances. That’s the challenge in front of us and it’s up to us to play our game, to give them a real test. That’s what we’re striving to do as a group and I’ve no doubt that the group of 23 players that we selected can do that. It will give us a real barometer of where we’re at.”