Mick McCarthy has named his provisional squad for the upcoming Euro 2020 qualifier against Switzerland, and it is an exciting one. Youngsters such as Troy Parrott, Nathan Collins and Michael Obafemi all feature, something that is sure to please Irish supporters.
One notable name that was absent from the squad is Dan Crowley. The midfielder, who recently joined Birmingham City after a spell in Holland, declared his intentions to commit his international future to Ireland a number of months ago.
It had been anticipated that he would be a part of this squad, something that was backed up by his impressive performances in the Championship.
However, speaking to the FAI after the squad announcement, Mick McCarthy admitted that it was not yet certain that Crowley was actually eligible to play for the country.
📹 Mick McCarthy speaks about his 40-man provisional squad ahead of next month's double-header #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/d36hk2BlYm
— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) August 16, 2019
Terry Connor has seen him (Crowley) twice and I've seen him once. I seen him at Portsmouth, when I watched Ronan Curtis and Marcus Harness play.
Eligibility issue. We've got to make sure that he does fully qualify to play for us, and if he does we will continue watching him.
He's just into the Championship and he's done reasonably well.
McCarthy was also asked about the aforementioned trio of youngsters, with Obafemi, Parrott and Collins all included.
With the Ireland U21s set to play two games during the same period, McCarthy admitted that he would release those players to Stephen Kenny if does not plan on using them for the senior team.
I spoke to Stephen Kenny and he was wondering if I was taking any of his players, I told him I got those three players in the squad.
I said I was only going to keep them if I was going to play them...
More than likely they will play with Stephen in the U21s, because I don't want to deprive him of their services because they want to qualify for their tournament.
