DARREN O'DEA was today rewarded for his Co-op Cup final heroics with a call-up to the Republic of Ireland squad for the World Cup qualifier double header against Bulgaria and Italy.
The 22-year-old Celtic defender is joined in the 26-man pool by Celtic Park team-mate Aiden McGeady, who also netted in yesterday's final against Rangers.
O'Dea - the only addition to the squad from last month's win over Georgia - was captain of the Irish Under-21 side, but is still hoping to earn his first full cap.
Republic boss Giovanni Trapattoni has already indicated he believes the youngster has a big future at international level. But, up until now, his lack of first-team appearances for Celtic this season has prevented Trapattoni selecting him.
But, after playing in the Hoops' last four matches, O'Dea has quickly been promoted into the squad for the crunch games on March 28 against Bulgaria and Italy on April 1.
The full squad is: Shay Given (Manchester City), Dean Kiely (West Brom), Kieren Westwood (Coventry); Alex Bruce (Ipswich), Damien Delaney (QPR), John O'Shea (Manchester United), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Paul McShane (Sunderland), Richard Dunne (Manchester City), Stephen Kelly (Birmingham), Steve Finnan (Espanyol), Kevin Kilbane (Hull), Darren O'Dea (Celtic); Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Damien Duff (Newcastle), Darron Gibson (Manchester United), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Keith Andrews (Blackburn), Liam Miller (QPR), Stephen Hunt (Reading), Andy Keogh (Wolves); Caleb Folan (Hull), Kevin Doyle (Reading), Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Shane Long (Reading), Noel Hunt (Reading).
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article