Jack Byrne will return to the Ireland under-21s.
Martin O’Neill will hold off on giving the 19-year-old Manchester City youngster a full international call-up, despite injuries in the Ireland squad this week.
Jon Walters, Harry Arter, and Jeff Hendrick have had to withdraw from the 33-man panel and there were slight expectations that the Dubliner might get the nod to fill some of the voids.
Byrne, who is spending the season on loan in the Netherlands with Cambuur, has been impressing at club level and was called up to senior international training this week from the under-21s. But only for training.
And O’Neill confirmed that Byrne will return to Noel King’s services for the game against Italy on Thursday.
After his first training session with the Irish team on Monday, Byrne stated confidently: “I feel as if I’m a good enough and confident enough player that I can affect games wherever I play.”
@SportsJOEdotie @Jackb_8 @SCCambuurLwd Here it is! pic.twitter.com/sidDa08IiQ
— AJPake (@AJPake) March 13, 2016
But the manager joked that he has been demoted for bragging.
“Jack’s going to go and play in the under-21s on Thursday,” O’Neill said. “I demoted him for boasting here the other day.
“He was always going to be playing under-21s. There are qualification games to be won there.
“He was unlikely to have started in any of these games. Best for him to start with the under-21s tomorrow night, that will be great for him.
“I think he will feel better for having trained with the senior players and no-one kicked him either.”
