The games will bring the squad together for the last time before their upcoming European qualifiers next month against Austria and Georgia.

The squad sees debut U17 call ups for nine players, namely, Sean Burke, Fiacre Kelleher, Dylan Barnett, Dylan Kavanagh, Chris Flanagan, Danny Crowley and Spanish-born James Lindsay-Escofet. Reece Cox and Harry Charsley also earn their first U17 call ups also after impressing during a Christmas training camp in Dublin.

Danny Crowley features in the squad also after pledging his allegiance to Ireland ahead of England. Danny has played for Ireland at U-16 level, while representing England at U-16 and U-17 level also.

Speaking today, U17 head coach Tom Mohan said, ‘It’s great to have the squad assemble again before our next European qualifier games in March. Coupled with the training camp over Christmas, we will have seen over 60 players perform by then. We are missing a number of players due to injuries and Youth Cup fixtures, so some new players have been handed the opportunity to impress next week.’

When asked about the opposition Mohan said, ’Croatia are a strong squad, and have a similar style of play to Serbia and Georgia, who we are up against in our European qualifying group. We will use these two fixtures as an opportunity to experiment with the team before our crucial games next month.’

The team will assemble in Dublin on Saturday before flying to Croatia where they will play both fixtures. The first fixture will be played in Novigrad on Tuesday at 15.00 hrs (local time), while the second fixture will be played at 11.00 hrs (local time) in Umag.

Squad

Peter Burke                             Sunderland FC

Harry Doherty                         Charlton Athletic FC

Ryan Rainey                            Wolverhampton Wanderers FC

Sean Burke                              Leicester City FC

Robin Dempsey                       Aston Villa FC

Bobby Moseley                       Birmingham City FC

Fiacre Kelleher                        Celtic FC

Dylan Barnett                          St. Joseph’s Boys FC

Cian Kavanagh                        St. Kevin’s Boys FC

Craig Donnellan                      College Corinthians FC

Reece Cox                                 QPR FC

Jack Byrne                                 Manchester City FC

Cody Mulhall                            Stella Maris FC

Cory Galvin                               Ipswich Town FC

Dylan Kavanagh                       St. Kevin’s Boys FC

Val Feeney                                Limerick City FC

Harry Charsley                          Everton FC

Chris Flanagan                         Finn Harps FC

Danny Crowley                          Aston Villa FC

Stephen Confrey                       St. Kevin’s Boys FC

James Lindsay-Escofet            AE Josef Maria Gene FC