SOCCER/UNDER-21 INTERNATIONAL:IRELAND MANAGER Noel King has high hopes for Arsenal midfielder Conor Henderson, who makes his debut at this level in today's friendly.
The London-born 19-year-old declared for Ireland through his grandparents two years ago and became the first Irish player in eight years to make a start for the Gunners when Arsene Wenger handed him his debut earlier this month against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup.
King has given the playmaker a starting berth for Ireland’s penultimate friendly before their European Championship qualifying campaign begins on September 1st against Hungary at the Showgrounds in Sligo.
“I’ve been tracking Conor Henderson’s progress for the last few months and his quality should be vital for us today against a talented Portugal side,” said King.
“Given how difficult it is for young players to break into the first team of a top English club, it’s testament to his standing at Arsenal that Arsene Wenger played him for the full 90 minutes on his recent debut.”
King has had to deal with a spate of withdrawals from his original squad this week but is confident their replacements will stake their claim for inclusion in future squads.
He said: “Last month’s friendly in Cyprus, which ended scoreless, along with this game and another friendly in Austria on August 9th are being treated as evaluation matches for the qualifiers which kick off in September.
“Losing five players from the original squad, especially four strikers, is not ideal, but others have come in and applied themselves well in training this week.”
IRELAND (probable): McLoughlin (Stockport); Towell (Hibernian), Canavan (Scunthorpe Utd), Kiernan (Wycombe), Gunning (Motherwell); Connolly (Bolton), Henderson (Arsenal), Barton (Preston); Clifford (Notts Co), Doran (Inverness), O’Connor (Ipswich). Subs: Hourihane (Ipswich), Murray (Torquay Utd), Madden (Carlisle), Duffy (Everton), Quirke (Coventry), Oyebanjo (Histon).
