A first Republic of Ireland cap will be on the horizon for Liam Scales if the Celtic defender can hit the ground running in the Champions League, according to ex-Drogheda and Dundee United centre-back Graham Gartland.
The versatile former Shamrock Rovers player has enjoyed a run of starts as the left centre-back in a four for the Scottish champions at the start of this season amid injuries in that department for Brendan Rodgers' side.
That included a strong showing in the Old Firm derby win over Rangers just before the international break.
The Glasgow side will now turn their attentions to the Champions League group stage opener at Dutch champions Feyenoord in Rotterdam, a fixture that will be live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player on Tuesday and Scales is set to be the only Irish player in line to feature in this season's competition proper, whilst team-mate Mikey Johnston remains sidelined by injury.
The 25-year-old's opportunity to shine for Celtic has come at a time when the left side of Ireland's back five could offer an opening with centurion James McClean hinting on Friday's Late Late Show that he may consider his international future after the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, while Enda Stevens, Ryan Manning and Callum O'Dowda are also in the mix for that wing-back berth.
He would also be a depth option among the candidates for left-sided centre-back within the current formation utilised by Stephen Kenny.
Wicklow native Scales has been called up previously by the Ireland manager but has yet to win a senior cap, although that could change depending on how the next few weeks go.
"He played wing-back a lot for Shamrock Rovers before he went away (in 2021) and scored a lot of great goals actually," Gartland said on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"So he has the ability to play further up if you needed him. When you play three at the back, I think that left side is important, that you might have a balance and that the left side of a three could do with being left-footed and gives you the option to play down the channel. You saw that with John Egan where he cuts back in a lot."
Gartland also feels Scales has been buoyed by a full season on loan at Aberdeen before returning to the Bhoys for the start of this campaign.
"He had a really good season on loan at Aberdeen," he said.
"He probably didn't have the best first six months and then they changed the manager and Barry Robson came in, took over and Aberdeen really shot up the league and did well.
"And since going back to Celtic, they have lost (Carl) Starfelt, he moved on, so there are obviously gaps to play and Rodgers has thrown him in.
"He actually threw him into the Old Firm. That was his first start and he did really well, performed, and I think that showed Rodgers that 'if I can trust him in this game, I can trust him in other games' and he has been excellent for Celtic.
"Champions League is the acid test now, the highest level that you can play club football at, and Feyenoord away will be a tough game and again, this is why he's playing at this level and I think if you have a player playing at Champions League level and doing well, I think it's only a matter of time before he probably should be getting capped for Ireland."
Follow a live blog of Celtic versus Feyenoord on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app. Watch the Champions League encounter from 7:30pm live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ
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