Evan Ferguson has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for the final World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Hungary. <\/p>\n
Group F leaders Portugal come to the Aviva Stadium next Thursday before Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s team travel to Budapest on November 16th to face a Hungary side that sits in the play-off spot, one point ahead of Ireland. <\/p>\n
It is unclear whether Ferguson can shake off an ankle issue that has impacted his loan season at Roma. The 21-year-old was already struggling with the injury before being forced off seven minutes into the Serie A tie against Parma on last week following a tackle by Argentinian defender Lautaro Valent\u00ed.<\/p>\n
Celtic\u2019s in-form striker Johnny Kenny misses out with Adam Idah set to start if Ferguson is ruled out. <\/p>\n
With Robbie Brady and Matt Doherty both injured, and Ryan Manning suspended for the Portugal game, the uncapped 26-year-old left back Kevin O\u2019Toole is included among the 25-man squad. The American born O\u2019Toole plays for New York City in the MLS.<\/p>\n
Andrew Moran, another American-based player, returns to the panel after impressing for LAFC on a season long loan from Brighton and Hove Albion. Moran and Charlton Athletic midfielder Conor Coventry, who are both former Ireland under -21 captains, are selected alongside Jayson Molumby as the West Brom player is also suspended for the Portugal game. <\/p>\n
Will Smallbone, Jason Knight, Bosun Lawal and Sammie Szmodics are injured but S\u00e9\u00e1mus Coleman is retained in the squad despite playing no minutes for Everton since the 1-0 defeat of Armenia on October 14th.<\/p>\n
Republic of Ireland Squad \u2013 Portugal\/Hungary <\/p>\n
Goalkeepers: Caoimhin Kelleher (Brentford), Gavin Bazunu (Southampton), Mark Travers (Everton) <\/p>\n
Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Nathan Collins (Brentford), Dara O\u2019Shea (Ipswich Town), Jake O\u2019Brien (Everton), Jimmy Dunne (Queens Park Rangers), Liam Scales (Celtic), John Egan (Hull City), Ryan Manning (Southampton)*, Kevin O\u2019Toole (New York City) <\/p>\n
Midfielders: Josh Cullen (Burnley), Jayson Molumby (West Bromwich Albion)*, Finn Azaz (Southampton), Conor Coventry (Charlton Athletic), Jack Taylor (Ipswich Town), Mark Sykes (Bristol City), Andrew Moran (LAFC) <\/p>\n
Attackers: Evan Ferguson (AS Roma), Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Adam Idah (Swansea City FC), Mikey Johnston (West Bromwich Albion), Chiedozie Ogbene (Sheffield United), Festy Ebosele (\u0130stanbul Ba\u015fak\u015fehir) <\/p>\n
*Suspended for the first match against Portugal. <\/p>\n
Fixtures \u2013 FIFA World Cup 26 Qualifying <\/p>\n
13\/11 – Republic of Ireland v Portugal, Aviva Stadium. 7.45pm <\/p>\n
16\/11 – Hungary v Republic of Ireland, Puskas Arena, 2pm (Irish Time) .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evan Ferguson has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for the final World Cup qualifiers against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7523,4700,61,60,43,1842,4018],"class_list":["post-124852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-evan-ferguson","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}