Ireland under-21 manager Noel King has named his squad for two games with English sides next month and has included Anderlecht goalkeeper Liam Bossin for the first time.
King's side will meet England C at Eamonn Deacy Park on Monday 1 June then the Irish will meet an England U21 select in a restricted entry fixture at St George's Park on Friday 5 June.
Bossin, who has previously lined out for the Ireland under-19s, makes the step up while there are three SSE Airtricity League representatives in St Pat's duo Lee Desmond and Sean Hoare and Cork's John Kavanagh.
The under-21s began their qualifying campaign for the 2017 UEFA Under-21 Championships with a 1-0 win in Group 2 over Andorra in Waterford in March thanks to a Dylan Connolly goal.
Their next competitive game is away to Andorra in September.
"These two fixtures will be excellent tests for us. Both the England teams will be older than our players so that in itself will present a test," said King.
"We have started our campaign with three points and will look to add another three points when we got to Andorra in September so this week coming up will give us a very good opportunity to work with the players.
"Coming together at this time of the year is not something we've done before so the aim is to be as well prepared as possible for the September fixtures."
Ireland under-21 squad: Daniel Rogers,Eric Grimes, Liam Bossin,Jack Connors, Darragh Lenihan, Sean Kavanagh, Shane Griffin, Glen Rea, Kenneth McEvoy, Alan Browne, Shamir Goodwin, Pierce Sweeney, Callum O’Dowda, Sean Long, Conor Wilkinson, Jack Byrne, Kyle Callan-McFadden, Bradley Garmston, Sean Maguire, Lee Desmond, John Kavanagh, Sean Hoare.
