Kenny confirms England approach for Under-21 star Cannon

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has confirmed that Under-21 striker Tom Cannon is taking time to reflect on his international future, after being approached by the England Under-21s.

Liverpool-born Cannon has been capped at Under-19, Under-20 and Under-21 level for Ireland, qualifying to play through his grandparents.

The Everton striker spent the season on loan with Preston North End and impressed for the Championship club, scoring eight league goals in 20 games.

Kenny had been hoping that Cannon could potentially form a long-term striking partnership with Evan Ferguson for Ireland, but he now risks losing the 20-year-old in a similar manner to Declan Rice and Jack Grealish.

Speaking ahead of Friday's Euro 2024 qualifier with Greece, Kenny was asked about media reports that the striker was on the verge of declaring for England.

"It’s better to be honest about these things," he said. "I saw the story breaking about Tom in one of the English papers. Tom hasn’t said anything to me about that.

"Now obviously he had tonsillitis and pulled out of the camp and it sort of made it difficult selecting him because he hadn’t been doing training, he hadn’t been doing the programmes that we had set.

"He has a good attitude and is a good lad but I have spoken to his agent subsequently, before the Under-21s were selected.

"His agent is Kenny Moyes who is David Moyes’ brother and he just said 'let’s get this camp out of the way and we’ll come and meet you and have a chat’.

"He [Moyes] said ‘Obviously England under-21s have made an approach’ and he just needed a bit of time to reflect and see what the situation was and wanted to speak to me after the camp, sit down and have a conversation.

"He said that he just needed time to breathe and