Emma Byrne and new signing Katie McCabe have been called by Sue Ronan for Ireland’s forthcoming trip to the USA.

The match against the USA will take place in San Diego on Saturday, January 23rd, with a game against the USA u23 team being played behind closed doors in Carson near Los Angeles on Monday, January 25th.

After the two games in the USA the side will head to the Cyprus Cup in March for four games before resuming the EURO 2017 campaign away to Montenegro and Spain in April.

Two former Arsenal players are also in the squad: Sophie Perry, who played at the Academy few seasons ago from Brighton and Hove, and Ruesha Littlejohn from Glasgow City.

Ireland are competing, in the Euro qualifiers Group two and are struggling at the moment as they are trailing Spain by six points and Finland by three points with all countries having played three games. Having lost 3-0 at home to Spain and 2-0 at home to Finland, their best hope is to finish as one of the runners-up in the group.

The six best runners-up go through alongside the group winners to the Euros while the remaining runners-up will play-off for the last seat. The rules say if two or more teams finish with the same number of points, the head-to-head record is taken into account as the tie-breaker.

It means should Ireland finish level on point with Spain i.e. catch up six points, they will need to win by four goals over there to overtake them. Same case with Finland; Ireland would need to win by three over there should the teams finish level on points.

Republic Of Ireland remaining qualifiers:

Montenegro A 07/04

Spain A 12/04

Finland A 03/06

Montenegro H 07/06

Portugal 20/09

By the third of June, we will know where Ireland stand with their head-to head-record and if they have a chance to qualify as group winners or runners-up.