Rachel Graham believes her Shelbourne teammate Aoibheann Clancy has a genuine chance of starting for the Republic of Ireland in Friday's Nations League clash in Greece.
Clancy, 21, was included in Carla Ward's squad after making an impressive start to the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division campaign with the Reds.
She earned her sole cap to date against Morocco in a November 2022 friendly, but Graham says the Limerick midfielder possesses all the qualities required to go straight into the starting XI in Crete.
"I'm going to back Aoibheann to start in the first game, just with how she's been training and how she's been playing with us," she told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"I think she'll go in and she'll really impress.
"If she doesn't start the first one, I think she'll definitely appear (off the bench) and she'll be in with a great chance to start (in Tallaght against the Greeks the following Tuesday).
"She kind of has everything. She can defend, she can attack, she's super fit, she's quick. I think Carla so far has been really impressed with her. I think she'll go in and impress in therre. I'm going to back her to start in at least one of the games."
Ireland are still licking their wounds after February's alarmingly poor 4-0 loss to Slovenia. They need to bounce back this week, and though Graham would like to see Ward give younger players more of a chance, she does not expect to see wholesale changes for the clash at Theodoros Vardinogiannis stadium.
"With how the last camp went, I don't think she's going to take any risks in these games," added Graham.
"She's going to just want to get two wins, get them back to winning ways, but I do think we've got really, really good players.
"Jessie Stapleton, for me, I think she's the future captain of that team. She's going to be a big, big player for us. If you can start blooding these players in, I would do it.
"Same with Tyler Toland, she's going to probably be the replacement for Ruesha. Ruesha doesn't probably have many years left. Saoirse Noon has been on form for Celtic. So I think we need to start getting these players in, but I just think for this camp she's going to go with her best starying 11, her most experienced starting 11.
"I think that's what she'll do but if we can get a chance where we can get these players on in games it'd be a great opportunity for it."
Watch Greece v Republic of Ireland in the Women's Nations League on Friday from 3pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra.
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