Former Republic of Ireland captain John O'Shea has been added to Stephen Kenny's management team a month away from the beginning of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign.
Having worked with Jim Crawford's Under-21 management set-up since April 2020, O'Shea will take on the role of assistant coach with the senior set-up.
O'Shea currently works as a coach at Stoke City, a post in which he is expected to continue while fulfilling his international role. He was previously employed as a coach at Reading.
There has been a vacancy in the senior set-up since John Eustace left to take the Birmingham City job.
Eustace was preceded in the role by Anthony Barry, who departed in early 2022 to join Roberto Martinez's backroom team at Belgium, subsequently following Martinez to Portugal after a disappointing World Cup.
"We're delighted to welcome John to the senior international coaching team," said Stephen Kenny.
"John had a brilliant career playing for Ireland right through from U15 to earning 118 caps for his country. Following that, he has committed himself to a career in coaching, working with both Reading and Stoke City for almost four years now.
"He has also combined that with a full campaign with the Ireland U21s team under Jim Crawford and I have watched his progress closely as he made a positive contribution throughout his time with the team.
"John will now make the transition into the senior coaching team where he knows the team well and we look forward to John joining our staff for the Latvia and France matches in March."
"I'm delighted to join the Ireland senior international team coaching staff and looking forward to working with Stephen and the rest of the backroom team when the campaign begins in March," said John O'Shea.
"It was always an honour to play for my country and put on the green shirt so to join the coaching staff and work with the current group of players and staff is an amazing opportunity for me.
"I'd like to thank Jim Crawford and the Ireland U21 backroom team who've been fantastic to work with over the last few years and wish them every success after such a strong qualification campaign last year.
"We've got a really exciting group of players, a good mix of youth and experience, and some fantastic fixtures to look forward to this year so I can't wait for it to begin and to get to work with the squad and staff."
O'Shea earned 118 caps for Ireland between 2001 and 2018, featuring in both Euro 2012 and Euro 2016. Before that, he was a member of Brian Kerr's U16 team which famously won the European Championship in Scotland in 1998.
In a decorated club career, he won five Premier League titles with Manchester United and a Champions League winners medal in 2007-08.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Follow Republic of Ireland v China from 1pm Wednesday via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, or watch live on the RTÉ News channel.
