Ireland Under-21 boss Jim Crawford is ready to unleash “exciting talent” Jack Moorhouse against Scotland and Hungary later this month.
Moorhouse, who has featured twice on Ruben Amorim’s first-team bench at Manchester United in recent weeks, against Arsenal and Tottenham, has been handed his first call-up at this level.
The midfielder is one of three new faces in Crawford’s squad for the two games, both in Pinatar, Spain, along with Joe Gardner (on-loan at Lincoln from Nottingham Forest) and Brentford’s Conor McManus.
Crawford believes Amorim’s elevation of the 19-year-old shows that his potential has not gone unnoticed at Old Trafford.
He said: “Jack’s somebody that we’ve been after for quite a while. I know he was in with Tom Mohan’s under-19s for a training camp and Tom was impressed with him then.
“One thing led to another. We went after him and he’s over the moon now to be called up.
“I’ve went over, I’ve met him, we’ve watched him play. He’s a fella that’s going to be a big player with the Under-21s, he’s an exciting talent.
“He sees things, he can score goals, he’s got great energy which is what we want to be about.
“I think his potential has been noted at Manchester United too because he’s been training with the first team, he’s been on the bench for the first team so he’s another exciting addition since November.”
Ireland Under-21 Head Coach Jim Crawford (Image: INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
Gardner is another new face and Forest forward comes with a glowing endorsement from former Forest and Ireland star Andy Reid.
“Joe is somebody who has been on our radar for quite a while,” said Crawford. “I had a few conversations with Andy Reid who’s at Forest. He’s highly regarded at Forest, he really is.
“There were a couple of conversations with Andy where he was sort of predicting that he could play with Forest’s first team but Forest have been excellent this year so obviously it became more and more difficult for Joe so he goes out on loan.
“I think he had a brief eight minutes but then he got a red card so he was suspended, I think he got three games for that, but he’s come back, scored goals, he can play up top and he can play out wide too so there’s extra strings to his bow.
“I’m delighted to have Joe on board. His mam’s from Dublin so he was proud enough to tell me that. I can’t wait to work with him.”
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