Franco Umeh and Emmanuel Adegboyega called up by Ireland Under-21s

Franco Umeh and Emmanuel Adegboyega have received their first call-ups for the Republic of Ireland U-21s for the upcoming UEFA European Championship qualifiers against Turkey and Latvia.

Head coach Jim Crawford has named a 24-man squad for the matches.

Crystal Palace and former Cork City forward Umeh as well as Dundee United and former Drogheda United defender Adegboyega are the only new faces.

There's a return to the squad for Killian Phillips fresh from his loan move to Scottish Premiership side St Mirren and James Furlong who is on-loan at Wimbledon but Bosun Lawal and Tony Springett, who featured in the last camp, miss out.

Tayo Adaramola, Zak Gilsenan, Sean Grehan, Conor Carty and Adam Murphy are all working their way back from injury.

Ireland will base themselves in Dublin before flying out to Istanbul for the qualifier against Türkiye on Friday, 6 September.

The young Boys in Green return to Ireland before facing Latvia in Tallaght Stadium the following Tuesday.

Crawford has also reinforced his backroom team with Stephen Rice joining the Under-21s coaching staff as assistant coach having worked with the senior team as chief scout and opposition analyst for the last three years.

Rene Gilmartin, who is the head of goalkeeping at Ipswich Town and served as goalkeeping coach with the senior team in the last two international windows, returns to the U-21s in the same role, having been involved in the position since 2019.

Crawford said: "Firstly, I would like to welcome Stephen to the Under-21s. He’s someone I’ve worked with numerous times and he’s an exciting and talented coach and someone who will bring a lot to our young players. He’s a former Ireland youth international and if you add that with his experience with the senior