John Egan will make his first Ireland start for 18 months after Heimir Hallgrímsson made three changes to his starting team for tonight’s friendly against North Macedonia. The Hull City man made his international comeback as a late substitute in last October’s World Cup qualifier away to Portugal. Hallgrímsson said true to his promise of making minimal matches as he seeks the performance to build on the positive side of last Thursday’s World Cup playoff loss in Czechia. He’ll have two friendlies in Spain this May, one at least against Grenada, before meeting World Cup bound Qatar and Canada either side of the June weekend. Republic of Ireland (3-4-2-1):C Kelleher;J Egan, N Collins, D O’Shea;S Coleman, J Knight, J Molumby, L Scales:C Ogbene, F Azaz;T Parrott.

Source: Irish Examiner April 01, 2026 06:11 UTC