John Egan returns to Ireland team after 18 month absence

BACK IN THE TEAM: John Egan arrives before the international friendly match between Republic of Ireland and North Macedonia. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

John Egan will make his first Ireland start for 18 months after Heimir Hallgrímsson made three changes to his starting team for tonight’s friendly against North Macedonia.

The 33-year-old replaces his fellow Corkman Jake O’Brien in the three-man defence, earning his 38th cap.

The Hull City man made his international comeback as a late substitute in last October’s World Cup qualifier away to Portugal.

Liam Scales comes into the left wing-back instead of Ryan Manning while the vacancy in midfield created by the withdrawal of Jack Taylor is taken by Jason Knight.

Hallgrímsson said true to his promise of making minimal matches as he seeks the performance to build on the positive side of last Thursday’s World Cup playoff loss in Czechia. Ireland led until four minutes from full-time before losing on penalties.

The Icelander suggested the enlarged allowance of eight substitutes will afford him scope to expose fringe players to gametime as the game progresses.

He’ll have two friendlies in Spain this May, one at least against Grenada, before meeting World Cup bound Qatar and Canada either side of the June weekend.

Then the competitive fare returns in Kosovo on September 24 with the first of six Uefa Nations League games before the Euro 2028 qualifying draw on December 6 in Belfast maps out the 2027 schedule.

Republic of Ireland (3-4-2-1):

C Kelleher;

J Egan, N Collins, D O’Shea;

S Coleman, J Knight, J Molumby, L Scales:

C Ogbene, F Azaz;

T Parrott.