Alan Browne emerges as fitness concern for Ireland's upcoming Euro 2024 qualifers

Alan Browne has emerged as a fitness concern ahead of the Republic of Ireland's upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers after being withdrawn at half-time by Preston North End on Saturday.

The Corkman, who is in Stephen Kenny's squad for the games against Greece and Gibraltar on 13 and 16 October, has been struggling with illness but was picked to start for his club in their Championship defeat to Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

However, he was unable to feature in the second half with his manager Ryan Lowe expressing regret that he had played him.

"That is my bad, really. I probably shouldn't have played him, but the captain wanted to play," he told the Lancashire Evening Post.

"He wasn’t feeling well before the game. We asked him but he is never going to say; I needed to take that out of his hands. You could see first half he wasn’t quite at it. He did alright, but when you’ve got someone of Alan Browne’s quality, you want him in and around your team.

"We thought he'd be okay, but he wasn’t, hence why he went off at half-time. And we needed to freshen it up, so we did what we needed to do."

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