Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has revealed Sam Szmodics wasn't considered for selection because of personal reasons.

The Blackburn Rovers attacker is the Championship's top-scorer with ten goals this term. Szmodics has been in fantastic form and earned a recall into the international set-up in October's camp.

However, he had to withdraw from those games for the same personal reasons that have prevented him from joining up with Ireland again. Boss Kenny explained that the Rovers marksman is unable to travel away from home for 10 days, at the moment.

"I didn't consider Sammie Szmodics for selection," Kenny said. "He had to leave the camp on the second day of the last camp for personal reasons.

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"Those personal reasons haven't changed and he can't be away for 10 days. It's a personal situation, he can't be away for that length of time so he wasn't considered."

The 28-year-old was first called up to the Ireland squad in the summer of 2021, only to miss out on the chance of a debut in friendlies with Andorra and Hungary due to a recurring shoulder injury.

He hadn't been involved until his call-up last month, though part of that reason was due to administration issues surrounding the paperwork submitted for his Irish passport. 

Andrew Moran was named in the Under-21 squad alongside Zak Gilsenan. However, the highly-rated Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder could soon be playing with the first team.

Ireland played away in the Netherlands on Saturday before hosting New Zealand in a friendly next Tuesday. Moran will not part of the team that plays Holland but could join the first-team set-up for the friendly match.

"Andy got injured playing for Blackburn, he was out for a few weeks. He came back and played well," Kenny said. "We won't play him in Holland so part of his development is playing with the Under-21s.

"We will review it for New Zealand and see where we are. We regard Andy very highly and he played well last Sunday (Norwich), he played very well."

Elsewhere, Arnor Sigurdsson is once again away with Iceland for their European qualifying matches against Slovakia and Portugal. Those two teams are in pole position to qualify from Group J and Iceland would need to win both games to stand any chance of pinching second place.

Adam Wharton is away with England's Under-20s group, now named the Elite League Squad. They face Italy (Thursday) and Germany (Monday) in a doubleheader having lost both of their opening two matches in the Elite League competition.

Junior Nsangou is away with Poland's Under-20s whilst Tom Atcheson is with Northern Ireland's Under-19 group.