{"id":426309,"date":"2026-05-01T04:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426309\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:18:10","slug":"roberto-de-zerbi-could-turn-to-ireland-under-21-star-amid-tottenham-forward-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426309\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto De Zerbi could turn to Ireland Under-21 star amid Tottenham forward crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mason Melia has been given a chance to impress the manager of the relegation threatened Premier League side.<\/p>\n

SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, Richmond Park, Dublin 22\/9\/2025
\nSt. Patrick’s Athletic vs Cork City
\nSt. Patrick’s Athletic\u2019s Mason Melia celebrates scoring his side\u2019s second goal
\nMandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/Laszlo Geczo<\/p>\n

Roberto De Zerbi could turn to Mason Melia to solve his front-line crisis.<\/p>\n

The Tottenham<\/a> boss has suffered a double-blow to his attacking options, with Xavi Simons suffering an ACL tear and Dominic Solanke a hamstring injury in last weekend\u2019s 1-0 win against Wolves.<\/p>\n

According to football.london<\/a>, De Zerbi has promoted the Ireland Under-21<\/a> international to first-team training this week as he prepares for a crucial game against Aston Villa on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Spurs are deep in relegation trouble and are two points adrift of 17th placed West Ham with just four games remaining.<\/p>\n

Melia has this week had a chance to impress the former Brighton and Marseille boss, and potentially earn a place in the squad for the Villa clash.<\/p>\n

The Wicklow native made the move from St Patrick\u2019s Athletic<\/a> to Tottenham<\/a> in January for a League of Ireland<\/a> record fee of \u20ac1.9million.<\/p>\n

But he had to bide his time before seeing any action with his new club, as he arrived with a back injury and later suffered from a chest infection.<\/p>\n

When he did make his bow for the Under-21 side, he scored within three minutes of his arrival against West Ham.<\/p>\n

Melia now has three more starts under his belt and in early April he got his first taste of training with the first-team.<\/p>\n

De Zerbi need not worry about the 18-year-old\u2019s experience at senior level, as Melia has been playing first-team football since 2023, when he was still just 15 years of age.<\/p>\n

He played a total of 98 games for St Patrick\u2019s Athletic, including 12 in Europe, and scored 25 times for the Saints.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mason Melia has been given a chance to impress the manager of the relegation threatened Premier League side.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91986,98138,38204,61,60,2539,127882,43,1102,57217,114374,96371,16489,15010,11290,112667],"class_list":["post-426309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aston-villa-fc","tag-brighton-and-hove-albion-fc","tag-dominic-solanke","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-marseille","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-u21-football-team","tag-roberto-de-zerbi","tag-st-patricks-athletic-fc","tag-tottenham-hotspur-fc","tag-west-ham-united-fc","tag-wolverhampton-wanderers-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426309","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=426309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}