Mick McCarthy says that Aaron Connolly's performances for Brighton this season merited a call-up to the Ireland senior squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Georgia and Switzerland.
The 19-year-old scored twice on his first Premier League start over the weekend, helping Brighton to a 3-0 win against Spurs.
Later on Saturday evening, the Galwayman received news that he was being bumped from the Ireland U21 squad to the senior group after injury forced the withdrawal of Ronan Curtis, Darragh Lenihan and Greg Cunningham. Blackburn's Derrick Williams has also been called up.
"The first bonus this weekend was to see so many of our players start for their clubs and the second bonus was the fact that some of them scored as well," McCarthy told the FAI website.
Aaron grabbed the headlines with those two goals for Brighton and he is now in the squad.
I’ve said all along that any young player who is getting first team football and playing well would be a real contender for the squad for these games. Aaron has got into the Brighton team, played well and scored so he deserves this chance.
The Ireland manager also said that he is monitoring the progress of both David McGoldrick and Shane Duffy. Due to injury neither was included in the original squad named last week.
"Our medical team are in constant touch with the two clubs and monitoring the treatment programmes and progress for both Shane and David," said McCarthy.
"We will give both of them as much time as we can before making that decision. Both Brighton and Sheffield United are doing everything they can to get them fit for us and I would like to thank them for their co-operation."
