Preston North End skipper called-up by the Republic of Ireland

The midfielder wasn't initially named in the squad for this international break after undergone hip surgery in the summer and then recently having to isolate having been deemed a close contact of someone who had tested for Covid.

But following injuries picked-up in Wednesday night's 2-1 defeat to Portugal, Browne, his former PNE team-mate Callum Robinson - now with West Bromwich Albion - and Celtic's Liam Scales have been called-up for the World Cup qualifiers against Azerbaijani and Serbia.

Those matches take place in Dublin, with the Irish facing Azerbaijani on Saturday and Serbia on Tuesday.

Browne's last appearance for North End was the 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield on August 17.

He missed the games against Peterborough and Morecambe having been isolating, while he had only had one training session ahead of the Swansea match last Saturday and wasn't picked for the squad.

His last game for the Republic of Ireland was at the end of March, a friendly against Qatar.

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