Celtic star Claire O’Riordan has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for next month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Hoops full-back is one of nine defenders named by Vera Pauw in her 23-player squad for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
Ireland Football announced the squad on Wednesday morning in a flashy video.
The Celtic FC Women account reacted half an hour later, saying: “Huge congrats to @claireor17 who has been selected to represent #IRLWNT at the @FIFAWWC! Go smash it, Claire!”
It’s a huge achievement for Ireland just to make it to the competition, having got past Scotland at Hampden last October.
They find themselves in a tasty looking World Cup group with Australia, Canada and Nigeria, with their first match against the Aussies in Sydney on July 20.
O’Riordan actually netted her first international goal just last week in a 3-2 victory over Zambia in Tallaght.
Pretty amazingly, history has been made by O’Riordan. She will become the first ever current Celtic player to go to a Women’s World Cup.
Somehow, back in 2019 when Scotland participated, there were no Celtic players involved, but that won’t be the case this time around.
The tournament will be shown by BBC and ITV in Britain (BBC Sport) and it would be great to see O’Riordan heavily involved.
It’s just another thing to keep an eye on this summer.
In other news, Kyogo Furuhashi and Yuki Kobayashi are in Japan training with their former side Vissel Kobe
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