Huddersfield Town's Graham Carey has been called up to the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad for their UEFA 2011 qualifiers against Switzerland and Turkey.
The 21-year old Celtic loanee was initially placed on standby for the squad, but injuries to James McCarthy, Aaron Doran and Stephen Gleeson - as well as a promotion to the senior squad for Cillian Sheridan - means that Graham has now been summoned to the squad for the two games.
FAI International high performance director Wim Koevermans will oversee the squad in the absence of manager Noel King, who is with Ireland women's under-17 squad.
This means that three Town players have been summoned to international duty next weekend; Carey, Alex Smithies (England) and Scott Arfield (Scotland). As a result, Town could apply to have this Saturday's game against AFC Bournemouth rearranged but manager Lee Clark has opted to go ahead with the fixture, as he explained to htafc.com:
"The fact that three players have been called up to their respective country's under-21 squad shows the quality of the footballers we have at this Club and all three deserve a lot of credit.
"Graham's call-up comes off the back of a very good performance against Charlton on Saturday.
"With Lee Peltier and Anthony Pilkington coming back from injury, we are keen to carry on the momentum we have from the weekend and we have options available in the squad that allows us to have a strong matchday eighteen for what promises to be a tough game against AFC Bournemouth."
Town Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens added:
"I think this is a great example of what Huddersfield Town is about in the 'New Era'. Of the three players, one - Alex Smithies - is home-grown, having progressed through the Academy since age eight; another - Scott Arfield - was bought from another club and the third - Graham Carey - was brought in on loan from Scottish giants Celtic after his talent was identified by our revitalised scouting network. It's also worth noting that Martin Kelly, one of our loanees during the New Era, is in the same under-21 squad as Alex.
"I feel this is a great indication of what we are trying to do at the Club; we want to nurture our own talent wherever possible, but at the same time we have to be commercial and take the opportunity to bring in talented players when the opportunity arises. We cannot survive on the Academy alone, or solely buy players, and we also realise that other clubs have talented young players too. Having young players of international calibre here should also have the knock-on effect of attracting even better players to the Club in the future."
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