John O'Shea hints at Ireland call-ups for Jake O'Brien and Sammie Szmodics
John O'Shea has hinted that Cork native Jake O'Brien is in line to earn his first call up to the Republic of Ireland senior set-up.
The former Cork City defender has impressed with Lyon since making the move from Crystal Palace last summer, making 20 appearances and scoring three goals in Ligue 1.
O’Shea will name his squad for the friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland next Thursday but speaking to TalkSport, he revealed he is likely to call up some "fresh faces" to his squad, which may also include Blackburn Rovers' forward Sammie Szmodics.
“I was at Blackburn and Millwall. Ultimately, the squad won’t change too much because you’re wanting to keep that bit of consistency," said O'Shea, who witnessed Szmodics net his 20th Championship goal of the season against Millwall, cancelling out Michael Obafemi's opener.
“But there might be one or two fresh faces in the squad. We’ll see what happens over the next 10 or 14 days, hopefully everyone is fit and we can look forward to a good camp.
“The big thing now at the minute is I’m looking at games in France and Italy to catch up on lads who could potentially be in the squad.
“They’re spread far and wide. Because of the Brexit rules some of the younger talent in Italy has gone to Italy and France.
“If something happens more permanently down the line I’d be looking towards some of the younger lads.
“There’s a good talent pool in the under-19s and under-17s, they’re really talented and it won’t be long before putting lot more pressure on the lads.
“I think when you see the age profile of the Irish squad now, and where the lads are playing, and they’re slowly but surely getting more game time, they’re developing and there’s more lads playing in the Premier League again, it
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