We could still have a Leeds United player stepping out at Wembley this season, as Paul Green has been called up by the Republic of Ireland, while Tom Lees is off to Israel with the England Under-21s.
Green has been included in the Republic of Ireland's provisional 28-man squad to play three friendlies and one World Cup qualifier in the next month. Once they’ve warmed up by playing England at Wembley and Georgia at the Aviva (the Dublin Stadium formerly known as Lansdowne Road) they have the main event, a World Cup tie against the mighty Faroe Islands.
As if that wasn’t enough, they finish off with a prestige friendly against current world and European champions Spain at New York's Yankee Stadium. No doubt they’ll be hoping for a far better performance than they managed against the same opposition at Euro 2012. 30-year-old Green was born in Pontefract, but qualifies for the Republic through his grandfather on his mother's side, who is from Westport in County Mayo.
Meanwhile Tom Lees has been named in the England Under-21 squad for the UEFA Under-21 European Championship finals, who will start with a week-long training camp in Turkey before the tournament starts in Israel a week later. Lees has been a regular member of Stuart Pearce's squad and played in several games during the qualifying campaign, including the brutal and controversial game in Serbia.
He told the official site "Playing with the Under-21s broadens your skills and your experience. You know all the players at your club, you know what they do in training, and it's good to go away and mix with different players. Training is of a great standard, the manager is great and the squad is really, really strong. The summer squad was tough to get in and it'll be an experience to be involved.”
The fun starts on June 5th and England’s group includes Italy, Norway and hosts Israel, so it could be hard to make further progress, but I’m sure the experience will be well worth the delay to the start of his summer holidays.