Preston North End captain Alan Browne and on-loan midfielder Jayson Molumby will be hoping to play their part for Republic of Ireland during the March international break.
The North End duo joined up with Stephen Kenny’s side on Sunday ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Luxembourg, before a friendly against Qatar at the end of the month.
The boys in green face Serbia in their opening group game on Wednesday 24th March, with a 7.45pm kick-off in Belgrade, before hosting Luxembourg on Saturday evening at the Aviva Stadium.
It’s then a friendly against Qatar in Hungry on Tuesday 30th March before the boys return to Euxton ahead of the Easter weekend fixtures.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game, PNE skipper Alan Browne was feeling optimistic about the challenge ahead for Stephen Kenny's men in their qualifying campaign.
“On paper, people will probably rule us out, if we’re being realistic, given our recent results. We haven’t been doing well enough, so I’m sure the critics will have already ruled us out.
“But us as a team and a nation, we’re always ones to thrive off this and be the underdog and come out on top, and that’s what we’re looking to do.
“We’ve got to be as optimistic as possible. We’re going into every game to win it, be in no doubt about that.
“That’s what we’ve always done and we want to live up to teams that have gone before us, getting through to the big games and the big stages. We want to keep that going.”