Ireland fringe players set for audition with Euro 2028 in mind

Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson will use a match against Grenada to assess fringe squad players ahead of Euro 2028

Lincoln City's Jack Moylan is among those in line for an Ireland call-up on Tuesday. Pic: Jacob King/PA Wire.

Eighteen years after Ireland’s last B international, the latest batch of fringe players will be revealed on Tuesday for a friendly against Grenada on Saturday week. Heimir Hallgrimsson has constantly highlighted the importance of training camps since being appointed manager 22 months ago and the 11-day gathering in Murcia will be his first such exercise.

Being outside of Fifa’s international window causes barriers to selection with the English Premier League and others around Europe running until the end of May but the Icelander believes there’s merit in assembling a new supporting cast with the bigger picture of Euro 2028 in mind.

His plan for the summer series entails picking two separate squads with scant overlap.

The first for Spain will be composed primarily of English Championship players followed by another of first-choice personnel for the friendlies against Qatar at Lansdowne Road on May 28 and Canada in Montreal on June 4.

Both those opponents are preparing for a World Cup Ireland are still agonised at missing out on.

All Hallgrimsson has had since the pain of penalties in Prague was a dead rubber stalemate against North Macedonia four days later, only the third friendly of his 18-match tenure. 

His contract extension was penned in the lead-up to that double-header in March but he was already mapping out the Euros route regardless of whether the 24-year wait for a World Cup appearance was ended.

Now he has as many warm-up matches over three weeks as the entire previous spell, ample time to both assess additions and bed down tactical patterns for his newcomers.

Competitive matches don’t resume until the Uefa Nations League campaign kicks off in September with a four-match window that includes two games against Israel.

Progress in the form of beating Portugal and Hungary, followed by coming within four minutes of beating Czechia, guarantees the backbone of the current team continuity for the next campaigns.

Doubt still surrounds the intentions of Séamus Coleman, aged 37 and entering the final few weeks of his latest contract at Everton, but the expectation is for Robbie Brady and John Egan, both 34, to stick around along the journey to the Euros this time two years away.

Depth is required more in some departments than others, especially across the midfield landscape of shallow options.

This week’s Championship playoff semi-finals rule out Alan Browne (Middlesbrough) and Will Smallbone (Millwall) from call-ups for the initial selection but the Corkman at Boro could still make the trip to Canada.

Jack Moylan will be joining the Championship ranks with promoted Lincoln City and he’s among a flock of uncapped players in line for good news on Tuesday. Hallgrimsson recently went to watch the former Shelbourne striker in action.

There is also the possibility of some future gems being brought along. Mason Melia has started shining for Tottenham Hotspur in the same way Jaden Umeh is at Benfica. Both have trained with their first-teams already and their club bosses may determine if they’ll be released for their first experience of senior international exposure.