Preston North End striker Callum Robinson hoping to show why he is a hot property against Denmark

Robinson was missing from the Irish squad for McCarthy’s first games back in charge in March.

At the time the 24-year-old was just back from more than three months on the sidelines following surgery to repair a hamstring tendon.

He had less than half-an-hour of action under his belt in the North End side and it was too early for an intense spell of international football.

Fully recovered and with PNE games under his belt in the run-up to the end of last season, Robinson was named in McCarthy’s squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Denmark and Gibraltar.

It is Denmark who are first up in Copenhagen on Friday night, before Gibraltar visit Dublin on Monday.

Robinson said: “I missed the last trip, so it was nice to obviously see all the new coaching staff and the gaffer.

“I have been looking to show the manager what I can do close up.

“He would have come and watched some of the games last season because a few of the boys in the squad are from Preston.

“But it’s obviously been nice to show him a few bits that I can do in training.

“I was gutted to miss out last time because I’ve never been injured before – I missed just one game in five years of first-team football.

“But my tendon ruptured and came away from my hamstring, off the bone.

“It wasn’t a nice one.

“If it had just been my hamstring I wouldn’t have needed an operation.”

The build-up to the two games started last month with a training camp in the Algarve.

It was there that Robinson’s North End team-mate Alan Browne injured a calf muscle and had to pull out of the squad.

Robinson, though, has had the company of Preston’s Sean Maguire, with both firmly in the frame to be involved in the games.

With Robinson now in the last year of his PNE contract, the summer could well be a pivotal one for him.

There has been interest shown by one Premier League club already and it could be that more speculation does the rounds over the coming weeks.