Eiran Cashin set Ireland challenge after impressive Blackburn Rovers spell

Eiran Cashin has been rewarded for his form at Blackburn Rovers with a first call-up to the Republic of Ireland senior squad.

Cashin has represented the national team at Under-21 level and now has an opportunity to impress Heimir Hallgrimsson and his coaching staff.

The defender is one of seven players who have been named in the squad for the first time and Hallgrimsson explained the thinking behind his selection.

“Firstly, it was a camp to keep players fit for the World Cup. It is a long break for those players, especially in League One and the Championship,” he told RTE Sport.

“Normally, it has been a tough time for those players. The Championship season is long and hard, so just to keep fit for a month is always tricky for the players.

“With two friendlies at the end of May and June, it extends it more than a month for them. From not qualifying for the World Cup, we just changed the thought process for this camp.

“We are going to use to it look at new players, new faces and then hopefully we can give players who are in this camp (time) off for the second camp. There is a lot of advantages for them in that, they have an extended off-season to recover for the next Championship or Premier League in some cases.

“We just changed the objective of this camp and now we have a chance to look at players we have had on our radar. We would like to get answers – are they ready, are they not ready etc.

“It is a good opportunity that I haven’t had since I came, just to experience and give players a chance to show what they can do, have them in our environment and see how they act in that environment.”

Cashin headed to Ewood Park in January after a tough stint at Birmingham City, where opportunities were hard to come by during the first half of the campaign.

Cashin battles for possession (Image: CameraSport - Shaun Brooks)

The 24-year-old quickly become a popular figure among supporters, helping Rovers secure safety in the Championship.

For Cashin and his Irish team-mates, it is an opportunity to prove why they deserve to stay in the national squad.

“Hopefully, it will help them to grow and give them a sniff of how close they are to the national team. It gives them this platform to show us what they can do,” Hallgrimsson added.

“Obviously, a lot of players think they should be there but now it is an opportunity to show that they deserve to be there.

“It is a lot of other seasons as well. One is that we can work closely with the Under-21s. Jim (Crawford) is going to be with us in this camp, he knows these players better than us.

“It is good for him to help those players and it is also good for us, the senior team, to work with the 21s because we always have the camps at the same time.”

The camp in Spain concludes with a match against Grenada at the Estadio Neuva Condomina on Saturday, May 16 (5pm UK time).

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“That is why we have the game at the end of the camp, so we can work with the players to get ready for the game,” the manager explained.

“We have seven or eight days leading up to that match and we play a friendly against Real Murcia in between, so we can prepare those players we have in the squad.

“As it stands, there are nine players without a cap so it is a lot of new faces. We need to use the time well to prepare for that game.”