Republic of Ireland Women’s National team manager Sue Ronan named a 21-strong squad for a winter training camp that will be held in La Manga in the coming weeks.
The camp will also feature a match against Norway on Thursday, January 15th.
The manager was joined by FIFA Goal of the Year finalist, Stephanie Roche and UCD Waves captain Áine O’Gorman at the squad announcement in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, this morning (Friday).
The squad sees the inclusion of five uncapped players including two of last year’s hugely successful Under 19 panel who reached the semi-finals of the UEFA European Under 19 championship – Katie McCabe and Lauren Dwyer.
Katie McCabe of Raheny United has been included in the squad.
They will be joined by Rihanna Jarrett of Wexford Youths, her clubmate Carol Breen and also 28-year-old Emma Beckett.
Also returning to the squad are Siobhan Killeen and Diane Caldwell, who each missed Ireland’s last international away to Germany due to concussion.
“We have a good foundation of experience in the squad now with 11 players having 20 caps or more, but we’ve also only one player over 30 so we have a lot of potential and I think we showed that in the last qualifiers where we recorded our biggest ever points total for a World Cup campaign,” said Ronan at the squad announcement in the Aviva Stadium.
She also spoke about Stephanie Roche’s achievement of reaching the last three for the FIFA Goal of the year award, and revealed that Stephanie will miss the first day of training at La Manga as she will be attending the prestigious Ballon d’Or ceremony in Zurich.
“It’s fantastic for Stephanie and for women’s football. The goal is in the top three on merit and it’s been extremely heartening to see all the compliments her skills have earned from some of the biggest names in the game.
“To get that far and make the final three is a fantastic achievement. That wasn’t just a fluke – Stephanie is always trying stuff like that. It’s well deserved and I think she’s got a great chance,” she concluded.
Voting is still open for the FIFA Puskas Goal of The Year award. You can vote for Ireland’s Stephanie Roche here. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Zurich on January 12th.
