Bosun Lawal has been added to the Republic of Ireland squad ahead of the friendly international in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old won 12 caps for Jim Crawford’s Ireland under-21s, operating as a defensive midfielder and at centre back.
Heimir Hallgrímsson had considered recalling Lawal, who featured in the squad last June, but a back injury spoiled his first season at Stoke City, where he made just six appearances having signed a four-year contract after three years at Celtic.
The Dubliner came through the ranks at St Kevin’s and Bohemians before moving to Watford in 2019.
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Hallgrímsson is resting his other Championship players this month, mainly to give Josh Cullen and Finn Azaz a full offseason ahead of the opening World Cup qualifier against Hungary on September 6th.
The Ireland manager could play Troy Parrott and Evan Ferguson up front against Luxembourg after starting Adam Idah with Jack Taylor playing behind the Celtic forward in Friday’s 1-1 draw against Senegal at the Aviva Stadium.
Hallgrímsson highlighted that Idah is being asked to play a completely different role for Ireland than he does for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
“I saw he took the job seriously,” said Hallgrímsson. “It’s not been an issue, but I think in his club it’s just so different a role it’s difficult to switch. Because we need a lot of defending from our strikers and he’s just not used to it at Celtic when they have their possession at say 70, 80 per cent in games. So the space he needs to work on in games is small.
“It’s a switch and hopefully players are learning more and more and he is growing. He knows what we expect so that’s a positive sign.”
Despite scoring 20 goals for AZ Alkmaar this season in the Dutch League and Europa League, Parrott did not feature on Friday due to a bug.
“When a player is sick, we’re not doing him a favour playing him if he’s 80 per cent. We would obviously like to play him fully fit and give him the chance to show himself when he is fully fit.
“He probably would have come into [the Senegal] game were it not for the injury to Robbie [Brady] in the end but we will see him play in [Luxembourg].”
Both Parrott and Brady, who was named the FAI men’s international player of the season, trained fully on Sunday morning in Abbotstown before the afternoon flight to Luxembourg.
